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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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Section of Diseased Lung; recent case of Lung Plague. Thin end 
showed black hepatization ; the centre, red hepatization ; the thick end 
interlobular infiltration. Several blocked vessels are shown. 



THE FARMER'S 



VETERINARY ADVISER 



A GUIDE TO THE 



PREVENTION AND TREATMENT OF DISEASE 



IN DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



/ 



By JAMES LAW 



Professor of Veterinary Science in Cornell University ; Veterinary A lumnus of the Higk 
land and Agricultural Society of Scotland ; Fellow of the Royal College of Veteri- 
nary Surgeons of Great Britain ; Consulting Veterinarian to the New 
York Agricultural Society ; Me7nber qftlie American Public 
Health A ssociation ; Former Professor in the A Ibert Vet- 
erinary College, London, and the New Veteri- 
nary College, Edinburgh; Author of 
General and Descriptive Anat- 
omy of the Domestic 
Animals, etc. 




WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS 



Eighth Edition 



ITHACA 
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 

1887 




OX * 
A 



\?\ 



Copyright, 1887, 
»r JAMES LAW. 



Right of 'l'ntnsUititm Reset-re*. 



TROW'8 
PRINTING ANO BOOKBINDING COMPANY- 
NEW YORK. 



PKEFACE TO THE EIGHTH EDITION. 

The " Farmer's Veterinary Adviser " has been so favor- 
ably received in America, Canada, and England that I feel 
called upon to issue a revised edition, to cover the ground 
over which Veterinary Medicine has advanced in the past 
eleven years, since it was first published, and thereby to 
continue to deserve the confidence hitherto accorded it. 
The advances of the past decade have been marvelous 
indeed, but most largely in the field of contagious diseases 
and their prevention, and to meet this progress, I have in 
the present edition added two complete chapters devoted 
to this subject. The third chapter has also been consid- 
erably enlarged by the introduction of additional plagues, 
which either exist on the North American Continent or 
are specially liable to be introduced through the ordinary 
channels of trade. The changes in the remaining part of 
the book are less extensive, but they will be found to add 
materially to the fullness and clearness of the work as a 
whole. 

Some of the changes made may not be fully appreciated 
at first sight by the average farmer, yet they were consid- 
ered essential for two reasons, first, the adaptation of the 
work to the purpose to which it has been largely put as a 
veterinary text-book in agricultural colleges ; and second, for 



iv Preface to the Eighth Edition. 

the education of the agricultural community in the need of 
effective methods for stamping out animal plagues, a subject 
which has been so ignorantly and ineffectively dealt with in 
our legislative halls. 

The author feels warranted in bespeaking for the revised 
edition a continuance of those favors that have been so 
freely accorded to its predecessors. 

JAMES LAW, 

Cornell University. 

Ithaca, March, 1887. 



PREFACE. 

This work is especially designed to supply the need of the 
busy American farmer who can rarely avail himself of the 
advice of a scientific veterinarian. The author is deeply sen- 
sible of the low estimate placed upon Veterinary Medicine 
and Surgery in the United States, and the necessity of 
educating the public up to a better appreciation of its 
value. We have a property in live stock estimated at 
$1,500,000,000, and rapidly increasing in value, consisting 
of at least six different genera of mammals, besides birds, 
and therefore affording an almost unlimited field for the 
practical exercise of humanity, political economy, and scien- 
tific research in the pursuit of Veterinary Medicine. In 
the Old World millions are saved yearly to each of the 
Western European Nations in the exclusion and extinction 
of animal plagues, and many instances can be adduced of 
an intelligent veterinary supervision saving at the rate of 
$30,000 per annum on a stud of 400 horses. But in the 
Western Hemisphere, apart from the larger cities, the great 
pecuniary interest in live stock is largely at the mercy 
of ignorant pretenders, whose barbarous surgery is only 
equaled by their reckless and destructive drugging. The 
constantly recurring instances of absolute and painful poi- 



vi Preface. 

soning, and cruel and injurious vivisections practiced under 
the name of remedial measures are almost sickening to con- 
template. To give the stock-owner such information as 
will enable him to dispense with the unprofitable and peril- 
ous services of such pretenders, and to apply rational means 
of cure when he happens to be beyond the reach of the 
accomplished veterinarian, is the aim of this book, and this, 
it is confidently hoped, it will accomplish for all who will 
intelligently study its pages. 

To secure this object, and yet to place the book within 
the reach of all, it was necessary to sacrifice all extended 
discussion of diseased processes, and questions in pathology, 
and therefore the reader who may discover deviations from 
current opinions is requested to suspend his decision until 
he has consulted the Author's larger work, in which the 
reasons for these positions will be given. 

With this view of still further condensing the work, the 
doses of medicines for the different animals are rarely given 
in the text, but one or more agents are named as applicable 
to every distinct stage or phase of the disease and species of 
patient, and the reader must turn to the list of drugs given 
at the end to find the amount required for each animal. 
In doing this he must note particularly for what purpose 
the agent is given and select the dose accordingly, as the 
effect of large doses is usually essentially different from that 
of small ones. Thus common salt given in large doses to 
cattle is purgative and reducing, while in small ones it is 
alterative and tonic. Sulphur in large doses is laxative, but 
in small ones alterative, expectorant, and diaphoretic. Oil 



Preface. vii 

of turpentine in large doses is purgative and vermifuge, in 
small ones diuretic, stimulant, and antispasmodic. Atten- 
tion must also be given to the age and size of the patient, as 
more fully set forth in the Appendix. 

Illustrations have been freely introduced to render the 
text more lucid, and, being selected from those prepared 
for the Author's larger work, may be implicitly relied on. 

In the list of contagious diseases are included not only 
those that are habitually developed on American soil and 
those already introduced from abroad, but also such as pre- 
vail in Europe, and are liable at any time to be brought 
into our midst by importation. It is no less imperative 
that the American farmer should be forewarned of pesti- 
lences that threaten him from abroad, than of those that 
beset him at home. For all such affections the principles 
that should guide us in preventing and extinguishing the 
disease are concisely but clearly set forth. 

All the important parasites are introduced, and their con- 
ditions of life and individual metamorphoses in and out of 
the bodies of domestic animals referred to, as well as their 
migrations from man to animals and from animals to man 
wherever such exists. The vast importance of animal para- 
sites is only beginning to be realized in connection with 
their frightful ravages in countries (England, Australia, 
Buenos Ayres, Egypt, Abyssinia, Iceland, India, etc.) into 
which they have been introduced, or where they have 
been allowed to increase unchecked, and a concise state- 
ment of their forms, habits, and results is therefore im- 
peratively necessary for the protection of the stock-owner. 



viii Preface. 

This subject has accordingly been brought up to the date 

of present observations, and though short enough for the 

perusal of the busiest, it will furnish a sound basis for 

the limitation and destruction of each of these noxious 

pests. 

JAMES LAW, 

Cornell TJnwersity. 
Ithaca, May, 1876. 



CONTENTS. 



Inflammation and Fever, . 
Contagious and Epizootic Diseases, . 
Specific Contagious and Epizootic Diseases, 
Larger Parasites, .... 
Dletetic and Constitutional Diseases, 
Diseases of the Resplratory Organs, 

Heart, 

Blood-vessels and Lymphatics, 

Digestive Organs, 

Liver, 

Pancreas and Spleen, 

Urinary Organs, 

Organs of Generation, 

Mammje (Udder) and Teats, 

Eyes, 

Nervous System, 

Skin Diseases, 

General Diseases of Bones, Joints, and Muscles, 
Special Injurles of Bones, Joints, and Muscles, 

Diseases of the Foot, 

Diseased Growths, 

Appendix : Action, Doses, etc., of Medicines, . 
Index, 



PAGE. 
. 1 

. 32 
. 83 
. 143 
. 155 
. 164 
. 198 
. 209 
. 216 
. 274 
. 291 
. 293 
. 310 
. 328 
. 332 
. 339 
. 356 
. 385 
. 407 
. 457 
. 484 
. 488 
. 499 



THE 

FARMER'S VETERINARY ADVISER. 



CHAPTER I. 

INFLAMMATION AND FEVER. 

Inflammation. Its phenomena. In vascular tissues. Changes in blood- 
vessels ; in blood ; in cells ; in tissue ; in function. Exudations. Migra- 
tion of globules. Reparatory processes. Inflammatory fever. Inflammation 
in non-vascular tissues. Deranged nutrition ; cloudy swelling ; exudations ; 
cell multiplication ; cell migration ; formation of blood-vessels ; purpose of 
cell multiplication. Exudations and effusions — serous, mucous, fibrinous, 
bloody, croupous. Results of inflammation. Resolution. Delitescence. 
Metastasis. New formations, plastic, aplastic. Suppuration. Pyogenic 
bacteria. Pus, cells, liquid. Abscess, acute, chronic. Diffuse suppuration. 
Fistula. Healing by first and second intention. Granulation. Granule 
corpuscles and masses. Development of lymph into tissue. Degenerations 
of new growths. Softening. Ulceration. Death by molecules. Gangrene ; 
death of a part. Fever ; definition ; stages ; symptoms ; premonitory ; 
chill ; reaction ; defervescence, crisis, lysis. Temperature in health and 
disease. Retention of water in system. Tissue waste. The typhoid con- 
dition. Types of fever. Treatment of inflammation and fever. Regimen. 
General fever remedies. Bleeding — general, local ; leeching, cupping. 
Warm baths — in chill and hot stage. Cold baths. Diaphoretics. Laxa- 
tives. Diuretics. Sedatives. Alkalies. Tonic refrigerants — in convales- 
cence ; in typhoid states. Local treatment of inflammation — cold, astrin- 
gents, antiseptics, hot applications. Stimulating embrocations and lotions. 
Blisters. Firing. Treatment of abscess. 

INFLAMMATION. 

Inflammation forms the essential part of so many diseases, 
and a concomitant of so many more, that a brief statement 
of its features and phenomena appears desirable, even in a 

1 



The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



condensed manual like the present. From the days of 
Hippocrates inflammation has been recognized by redness, 
heat, pain, and swelling, followed by resolution or indura- 
tion, suppuration, or gangrene. Such a definition is, how- 
ever, sadly insufficient in view of modern discoveries as to 
the different phases of the inflammatory process. Redness 
occurs in the transient blush, heat in the feverish system, 
pain from simple passing nervous disorder, swelling from 
dropsy, induration from the formation of tumors, and gan- 
grene from the blocking of blood-vessels or other exclusion 
of blood and the means of nutrition from a part, and in no 
one of these cases need there be an element of true inflam- 
mation. Perhaps no definition can be given which will 
cover all the phenomena of inflammation. 

INFLAMMATION IN VASCULAR TISSUES. 

These phenomena, as seen in a transparent membrane like 
the web of the frog's foot or the mesentery may be stated 
as follows : 1st. Disturbed circulation evinced by contrac- 
tion, quickly followed by dilatation with elongation of the 
capillary blood-vessels, and a rapid, followed by a slow, and 
even oscillating or backward movement of the blood within 
them, branching redness. 2d. The blood-globules become 
sticky and adhere together and to the walls of the capilla- 
ries so as to block them in points. 3d. The fibrin of the 
blood coagulates around these masses of globules, forming 
points of complete obstruction, and constituting those minute 
spots of deep redness which cannot be effaced, even for an 
instant, by the pressure of the finger on inflamed skin. 4th. 
The liquid parts of the blood ooze out in excess through 
the capillary walls into the tissues, causing the swelling. 
5 th. Blood-globules and granules escape through the walls 
of the vessels and degenerate into pus-cells or become the 
centres for the growth of new tissue in the exudate. 6th. 
The nuclei {cells) presiding over the nutrition, etc., have 



Inflammation and Fever. 



their functions impaired or lost ; the inflamed skin in the 
frog has its pigment-cells unchanged while all the body be- 
side has changed color, the inflamed retina no longer sees, 
the inflamed nose no longer smells, the inflamed mamma no 
longer yields milk, the inflamed finger has no more the 
proper sense of touch, and the inflamed cells that control 
nutrition no longer build up the tissues amid which they 
lie, but tend rather to a simple multiplication of their own 
cell forms, as do the cells of the early growing embryo. 
7th. In an extensive inflammation the large arteries pro- 
ceeding to the diseased part have their coats abnormally 
rigid, giving a harder beat to the pulse and determining a 
more abundant flow of blood than in the corresponding ves- 
sels of the healthy part. This doubtless results from the 
disorder of the vaso-motor (sympathetic) nerves, and this 
disorder is involved in the causation of the derangement of 
the capillary circulation as well, since the cutting across of a 
branch of these nerves going to a part promptly induces in- 
flammatory changes in such part. This tendency to the 
production of inflammation through nervous influence is 
further shown in the extension to the other of a violent in- 
flammation of one eye caused by a mechanical injury. Yet 
the essential changes may be induced in the tissues by irri- 
tants, though the nerves proceeding to the part have been 
cut or the blood-vessels tied. 

It is worthy of notice that in extensive inflammations 
in otherwise healthy systems the circulating blood acquires 
a great increase of fibrinogen (often doubled), and the blood- 
globules become abnormally adhesive, so that before the 
drawn blood has time to coagulate the globules adhere to- 
gether in masses and precipitate toward the bottom, leaving 
the upper layers of the clot of a dull yellow hue (buffy coat). 
This is shown in the blood of the healthy soliped, but in 
other animals it implies inflammation, apart from the condi- 
tions of plethora, anaemia, pregnancy, or over-driving. In 



The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



the horse suffering from inflammation the normal buffy coat 
is increased. The blood of inflammation also coagulates 
more firmly and contracting most toward the centre assumes 
a cupped appearance on the surface. 

These changes in the blood and nervous system are asso- 
ciated with an increase of body temperature and other mani- 
festations of fever proportionate to the extent and violence of 
the inflammation. Again, in both inflammation and fever, 
the disease process may be of a strong type (sthenic), or of 
a low type (asthenic, adynamic). 

INFLAMMATION IN NON-VASCULAR TISSUES. 

Inflammation in tissues unprovided with blood-vessels 
may be observed in the irritated transparent cornea of the 
eye, or the cartilage covering the ends of bones in joints. 
Each when inflamed has its nutritive function impaired and 
loses its clear, translucent aspect, so much so that in the case 
of the eye one can no longer see into its interior. There 
may be as yet no real thickening, and no film of exudation 
formed on its surface. It is the pre-existing structures that 
have become opaque by change in the process of their nutri- 
tion. If a thin slice of this inflamed cartilage is treated 
with picric acid and placed under the microscope it is found 
that the nuclei within the cartilage-cells have become indi- 
vidually larger, that the cells embedded in the cartilaginous 
matrix are more numerous than is normal, and that, when 
the inflammation is most active, even cell-walls are no longer 
formed, but that a mass of rapidly multiplying nuclei is 
taking the place of the solid transparent matrix. As in the 
vascular tissue, so in the non-vascular, the power to build up 
the sound tissue (cartilage, corneal tissue) has been tem- 
porarily lost, while there is a mere growth of a cellular or 
embryonic tissue at the expense of the pre-existing struct- 
ure. It remains to be added that in the inflamed cartilage 
or cornea there is an abundant infiltration of wandering 



Inflammation and Fever. 



white blood-cells, which have escaped from the vessels in the 
adjacent vascular tissue and made their way into the in- 
flamed and softened cornea. 

Thus in both types of inflammation, in the vascular and 
non-vascular tissues alike, there is this abundant concentra- 
tion of plastic cells (white blood-cells and tissue nuclei), 
which assume for the time the functions of the cells of the 
early embryo from which all the varied tissues of the future 
animal are to be developed. Hence these cells, whicli 
grow so abundantly in inflamed parts with the size, form, 
and functions of embryonic cells, are not inaptly called em- 
bryonic cells, and the tissue, which they first form, embry- 
onic tissue. These cells may be looked upon as the guardi- 
ans of the system, charged with the duty of removing from 
the part all noxious, useless, or extraneous matter, and build- 
ing up new tissue to repair the breach resulting from the 
injury. No sooner is the injury sustained than there is es- 
tablished an increased flow of blood through the vessels of 
the injured part (or through the nearest blood-vessels in 
case the injured structure has no vessels), the white globules 
are delayed in the capillary vessels and passed through their 
walls, and at the same time the tissue nuclei increase in size 
and numbers, abandon their habitual work of building up 
tissue, and together with the wandering blood-cells devote 
every power to the removal of the irritant and the repair of 
the breach. A similar work is effected in an entirely natu- 
ral way in the tail of the tadpole when developing into a 
frog. Embryonic or lymphoid cells increase enormously in 
the tail, feeding upon the tissues of the now superfluous 
organ, and gradually absorbing and removing the whole 
mass. So it is, too, in the case of offensive living organisms 
introduced into a tissue. When bacteria have been thus in- 
oculated inflammation is at once set up, and the accumulat- 
ing cells, if numerous enough relatively to the micro-organ- 
ism, take the bacteria into their substance and gradually 



6 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

dissolve and digest them, thereby rendering the inoculation 
harmless. If, however, the bacteria are too numerous or 
too poisonous (in themselves or their products) to be thus 
easily devoured, the opposite result ensues, the cells of the 
blood and tissues sent to dispute their invasion are them- 
selves destroyed, and there takes place the death and re- 
moval of a circumscribed portion of tissue, an extensive 
suppuration and abscess, a spreading gangrene or ulcer, 
or a fatal general infection. A small dose of such bacteria 
is devoured, removed, and rendered harmless by the de- 
fensive work of these exudation-cells; a larger dose may 
establish a temporary stronghold in the tissues, which is 
finally circumscribed, loosened, and thrown off as a slough 
by the active agency of the investing animal cells around it, 
while a still larger dose conquers the defending army, and 
extends its sway over the entire body with grave or fatal 
effect. 

INFLAMMATORY EXUDATIONS AND EFFUSIONS. 

These vary much in different cases according to the grade 
and stage of the inflammation, the part affected, and the 
subject of the disease. 

1st. Serous Exudations. These consist of the liquid ele- 
ments of the blood, with only a limited amount of the 
fibrine-forming element (fibrinogen), and consequently little 
tendency to clot firmly. The effused fluid is distinguished 
from the liquid of mechanical dropsy by the presence in it 
of the fibrinogen, of albumen, of cells, and of nuclei. The 
dropsical fluid does not coagulate unless heated, and con- 
tains less common salt and phosphates than the inflamma- 
tory effusion. Serous exudations are characteristic of the 
early stages of inflammation, and of inflammations of serous 
membranes (pleura, peritoneum, joints) in strong, vigorous 
subjects. They are especially dangerous by reason of inter- 
ference with the functions of organs by pressure, as with 



Inflammation and Fever. 



the dilatation of the lungs, the movements of the heart, the 
movement of joints, or the integrity of the brain or spinal 
cord. When the disease that caused them has subsided 
they are usually speedily reabsorbed, though not invaria- 
bly so. 

2d. Mucous exudations are formed wherever mucus is 
produced in health, as in catarrhs of nose, eyes, throat, 
and other mucous membranes. They contain filaments of 
precipitated mucin insoluble in acetic acid or alcohol, and 
globular cells in all stages of change from the mucous to the 
pus-corpuscle, the latter recognized by its bipartite or tri- 
partite nucleus, manifested by contact with acetic acid. 

3d. Fibrinous Exudations. Inflammatory lymph. This 
oozes out through the vessels in a liquid state and afterward 
coagulates by reason of its contained fibrinogen or plasmin, 
which exists ready formed, but in solution, in the blood. 
It is the excess of plasmin which distinguishes this from the 
serous exudation. The coagulation of plasmin may result 
from the ferment globulin escaped from the blood-globules, 
and it always coagulates promptly on contact with inflamed 
tissues, probably from the presence of the same or an 
allied ferment. If, on the other hand, the exudation es- 
capes into a healthy cavity, and comes in contact with 
healthy tissues only, it may, like blood in similar circum- 
stances, remain liquid for months. It is specially injurious 
by enveloping organs (lungs, heart, bowels, iris) and hamper- 
ing their movements, or by binding them to adjacent struct- 
ures by false membranes. In coagulating it becomes first 
fibrillar, then granular, and finally undergoes molecular dis- 
integration (Cornil and Ranvier) or development into new 
tissue (Paget). When organized it usually takes the form 
of the adjacent tissue; in granulating wounds and between 
serous membranes it is fibrous, and between the broken ends 
of bones it is bon} 7 . 

Fibrinous exudations are especially seen in a high grade 



8 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

of inflammation, in connection with fibrous tissues and in 
strong vigorous subjects. 

4th. Blood Exudations. As already stated, blood-globules 
escape through the walls of the vessels in all inflammations, 
though seldom in such quantity as even to stain the tissues. 
Minute ruptures of the capillary vessels are not uncommon 
with punctiform clots in the tissues, but extensive escapes of 
blood are usually indicative of a specially unhealthy type of 
inflammation, usually associated with a specific and deadly 
poison, as in anthrax, rinderpest, swine-plague, purpura 
hemorrhagica. They are further most common from newly 
formed vessels, which are yet soft and possessed of little 
power of resistance. 

5th. Croupous Exudations. These are deposited on dis- 
eased surfaces in the form of false membranes, composed 
mainly of cell-elements, epithelium, and pus-corpuscles in a 
thin network of fibrine, mucin, or both. To these belong 
the membranous products of croup and diphtheria, and the 
false membranes that appear independently of these poisons 
on violently inflamed mucous membranes (croupous enter- 
itis, etc.) 

RESULTS OF INFLAMMATION. 

Resolution. This is the condition in which a slight in- 
flammation, which has not advanced beyond the stage of 
liquid effusion, has the exudate reabsorbed, and the blood- 
vessels and tissues restored to their healthy condition. If 
this occurs with extraordinary rapidity the term delitescence 
is applied to it, and there is danger of its reappearance else- 
where by reason of clots from the capillaries being suddenly 
loosened and washed onward to block other capillaries in the 
lungs or other distant organs. This occurrence of a sec- 
ondary disease at a distance, when a first has suddenly sub- 
sided, has been named metastasis, and is usually due to the 
blocking of the capillaries by blood-clots. 



Inflammation and Fever. 



Inflammatory New Formations. Of the growths in 
lymph there are two principal kinds : first, the plastic, 
fibrinous, granular, or molecular y and second, the aplastic, 
croupous, or corpuscular. The first form tends to develop 
into new structure, the second to disintegrate and decay. 
The tendency to one or other form depends largely on the 
strength or weakness of the system's health, on the deficiency 
or excess of corpuscles in the exuded fluid, and on the dis- 
tance of the latter from living tissues and blood- supply. 
Much also depends on the predisposition of the genns, the 
tendency to suppuration in lymph being in a descending 
series from horse, ass, and mule, through ox and sheep, to 
dog, pig, and, finally, the bird, in which latter suppuration 
is quite exceptional. 

Suppuration. In inflammations of a high type, in those 
occurring on the skin or mucous membranes in which there 
is an extraordinary increase of nuclei and embryonal cells, 
and in lymph thrown out in excess at one point, so that its 
central parts are far from vascular tissue, the cell elements 
undergo a rapid increase and degradation into pus-corpuscles, 
and its solidified intercellular lymph undergoes granular 
decay and liquefaction into the liquid of pus. 

While the above conditions are favorable to the forma- 
tion of pus, the process of suppuration must now be recog- 
nized as an infective process due to the propagation of bac- 
teria (mainly chain forms — Streptococcus pyogenes— and 
cluster-groups — Staphylococcus pyogenes). These or other 
bacteria are found in the pus of acute abscesses, and when 
absent in chronic abscesses are to be considered as having 
perished since the abscess was recent and active. Inocula- 
tion of a rabbit with an excess of the pus of an acute abscess 
produces general purulent infection (pyaemia) and early 
death; from a medium dose an abscess is produced; while 
from a small dose there is no effect whatever. In the latter 
case the bacteria are overcome and devoured by the abun- 



10 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

dauce of vitally potent white blood-globules and tissue-cells. 
This pus-forming action of these bacteria explains the great 
difference in results in wounds exposed to the air and those 
iti the interior of the body and far removed from air and its 
floating bacteria. A broken bone, with no wound in the 
skin and little injury to parts around the fracture, is readily 
repaired, without any formation of pus, if merely kept still 
and immovable ; whereas a broken bone, continuous with a 
wound through the skin, always tends to form pus and is 
extremely dangerous even to life. The tendency of every 
open sore is to form pus on its surface, but this may be 
arrested and prevented by a free use of disinfectants and a 
covering which shall arrest and filter out the germs. Simi- 
larly in an abscess the injection of disinfectants, without the 
formation of any perceptible permanent opening to the outer 
air, will put a stop to the pus-formation. The subjection of 
an inflamed part to the control of these pus-forming bacteria 
is dependent on the lowered vitality and power of resistance 
of the inflamed tissues, and of the white cells of their circu- 
lating blood. Healthy parts can successfully resist them, 
though they are constantly present in surrounding air and 
on objects, but in this, as in all other cases ; of bacterial in- 
fection, so soon as the tissue is injured, inflamed, and lowered 
in its power of vital resistance, the pyogenic bacteria assail 
it successfully. Hence, too, the more abundant exudations 
of lymph, the centres of which are farthest removed from 
the healthy tissues, and from the influence of their vital re- 
sistance, are the most prone to suppuration. That the germs 
can make their way to such deep-seated exudations in the 
substance of solid tissues is to be accounted for by their 
gradual advance through the inflamed and weakened struct- 
ures from the adjacent skin or mucous membrane, or in 
some instances by reason of their presence in small numbers 
in the blood. It is further noteworthy that those animals 
in which suppuration does not occur readily are such as have 



Inflammation and Fever. 1 1 

a special power of resistance to some other organic poisons. 
Thus the hog, which is supposed to be proof against snake- 
bite, is also, to a large extent, proof against the pus-forming 
bacteria. For further notice of this subject see article on 
Pyazmia. 

Pus. This is a white, or yellowish-white, creamy-looking 
product, composed of a clear, transparent fluid, rendered 
opaque by numerous floating pus-corpuscles. These pus- 
corpuscles have the same size as the white globules of the 
blood (^Vrr to -3 oVir inch) and are peculiar in that each 
shows within it three or more nuclei, which become visible 
on the addition of a drop of water or acetic acid. Each of 
the common embryonal cells found in the inflamed tissue 
contains two nuclei, the indication of the active increase 
by division into two, but when the supply of nutriment is 
checked the nuclei continue to divide, while the cells remain 
unchanged, and thus every cell comes to contain several 
nuclei in addition to fatty granules, and constitute pus- 
corpuscles. 

When pus is formed in a well-maintained system and tis- 
sue, the outer layer of the lymph is developed into a fibrous 
sac inclosing the liquid pus and constituting an abscess. In 
an unhealthy system, or when the inflammation depends on 
some injurious poison, like that of erysipelas, this sac may 
not be formed, and the pus, burrowing into and between dif- 
ferent organs, destroys the connections and substance — dif- 
fuse suppuration. When an abscess has formed in soft 
tissues its investing sac shrinks as it assumes the fibrous 
character, and the confined pus being incapable of compres- 
sion, presses the membrane outward on the side in which 
the surrounding tissues are most loose and least resistant, 
hence, usually, though not always, in the direction of the 
skin, the soft tissues become absorbed and removed in the 
track of the advancing pus ; and, finally, the latter reaches 
a surface and escapes. Thus, an abscess usually bursts 



1 2 The Farmer 's Veterinary Adviser. 

through the skin, but also, at times, through a mucous 
membrane into the lungs, bowels, etc., or through a serous 
membrane into chest, abdomen, etc. When an abscess is 
formed in bone or dense fibrous tissues which press equally 
on all sides, it may remain imprisoned for months and j'ears 
after all inflammation has subsided, constituting an indolent 
or cold abscess. When the imprisoned pus is inclosed by thick 
fibrous or resistant tissues at all points but one, it will make 
its way along the narrow passage of yielding tissue, but as 
the resulting outlet is constricted, long, and tortuous, the 
contents cannot readily escape through it nor the walls of 
the abscess contract so as to expel the confined pus, and the 
latter goes on forming and discharging through the narrow 
outlet for months or years. This is & fistula or sinus. 

Healing by Adhesion or First Intention. When a clean- 
cut wound has the blood staunched and its lips brought to- 
gether without exposure to the air (or contact with pyogenic 
germs), they adhere at once and heal without pus or any 
appreciable formation of new tissue. Here the lymph 
thrown out on the cut surfaces agglutinates them, and the 
cells, multiplying, form a thin layer of embryonic tissue 
which gradually develops into a fibrous structure and re- 
pairs the breach without any perceptible scar. 

Healing by Second Intention. Granulation. When a 
wound has caused destruction of tissue, or when a simple 
incision is left exposed to the air, the breach is filled up by 
new tissue through the process known as granulation. The 
superficial layer of lymph thrown out on the raw surface 
becomes oxidized and degenerates into pus, while the deeper 
layers become solid, fibrillated, the seat of cell-growth, and 
are finally transformed into a fibrous structure. New 
blood-vessels form in loops in the developing lymph and 
constitute the bright-red granulation-points which cover the 
raw surface. The fibrous tissue into which the lymph is 
transformed undergoes gradual contraction in development, 



Inflammation and Fever. 13 

and thus, day by day, the edges of the adjacent healthy 
skin are drawn in, so as to cover the wound more or less 
perfectly, and a slight scar only is left when healing has 
been accomplished. 

Granule Corpuscles and Masses. This is another de- 
generative transformation in lymph and, is seen mainly in 
inflamed glands and brain- and lung-tissue. The cells found 
in the exuded lymph are made up of granules ytdto mcn m 
diameter, and besides these, large, irregularly shaped masses 
of granules are extended along the capillary blood-vessels. 
After the lymph has coagulated these granular masses soften 
and liquefy preliminary to re-absorption and removal, and 
the restoration of the tissue to a healthy condition. When 
in excess this softens and disintegrates the tissues, leading 
to permanent loss of substance. 

Development of Lymph into Tissue. This is equivalent 
to what takes place in the formation of the sac of the 
abscess or of granulation-tissue. The liquid lymph in co- 
agulating, becomes fibrillar, and the exuded cells and nu- 
clei and those of the adjacent tissue, having an abundant 
supply of blood and nutriment, multiply first as simple, 
rounded embryonic cells, then deposit around them new 
tissue, becoming elongated, spindle-shaped, branching, etc., 
and thus get imbedded in a fibrous material of their own 
formation. These new formations are usually of a low tj^pe 
of organization, like white fibrous tissue or bone, and hence, 
although breaches in the higher structures like muscle, 
nerve, gland, skin, are filled up, it is usually only by the 
drawing together of the remaining healthy parts by these 
new formations without the restoration of any of the origi- 
nal tissue which has been destroyed. The cicatrix (scar), 
alone is made up of new material. 

Lymph developing in this way may undergo any degen- 
eration to which normal tissues are subject. Thus it may 
undergo black pigmentary {melanotic) degeneration, it may 



14 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

become impregnated with lime- salts {calcified), it may wither 
up into a hard gelatiniform or horny mass, or it may 
xmdiQYgo fatty degeneration. 

Fatty degeneration is the most common form, and con- 
sists in the excessive deposit of fatty granules, first in the 
cells which are in excess or badly nourished, and next in 
the adjacent tissue, the normal elements of which are re- 
placed by fatty granules. 

Softening is an almost constant result of inflammation. 
The exudate infiltrates and separates the tissue elements, de- 
stroying their cohesion ; its liquefaction impairs this still 
further, and the more or less perfect transformation of the 
tissue into embryonic tissue entails the loss of its rigidity 
and power of resistance. Thus the inflamed brain-tissue 
may become a mere pulp, and the inflamed bone may be 
cut with a knife. 

Ulceration is closely allied to softening. On the surface 
of a sore there is an excessive exudation of lymph, which 
loosens and disintegrates the layer of lymph that is already 
in process of development, and also a part of the tissue be- 
neath. The cells in these parts fail to develop naturally 
and to build up good tissue ; they become fatty, die, and 
together with the tissue in which they lie, break down and 
pass off as a pulpy debris. Thus the sore constantly deep- 
ens and widens, or at least refuses to contract and heal. 

Gangrene or death of a part is another effect of inflam- 
mation. It results usually from the cutting off of the blood- 
supply through the obstruction of the blood-vessels ; by the 
pressure of excessive exudation in unyielding structures, as 
in bone, or under the hoof; by implication of the inner 
coats of the blood-vessels in the inflammation, when the 
contained blood will clot and obstruct them ; or by block- 
ing with the blood-clots that have been formed at a dis- 
tance and washed on in the blood-current to be arrested 
when they reach vessels too small to admit them. Like 



Inflammation and Fever. 15 

suppuration, gangrene is associated with a micrococcous 
growth. The dead mass remains as an irritant, and is 
slowly separated by the formation around it of embryonal 
tissue, granulations and pus. A second form is molecular 
gangrene, in which the cells and minute elements of the tis- 
sue die, and are cast off, leading to phagedenic (eating, ex- 
tending) sores, as noted above under Ulceration. When 
gangrene occurs on an exposed surface, that may be altered 
from the normal color into shades of yellow, brown, green, 
red, or black, according to the amount of blood and the 
stage of decomposition, and may be cut without pain, if the 
subjacent parts are not pressed upon ; it may be soft, may 
pit on pressure, may crackle under the hand from the 
evolved gases of decomposition, and may be covered with 
blisters (jphlyctenm) with red, grutnons liquid contents (moist 
gangrene) ; again, it may be white, as after freezing, or it 
may be dark-colored, dry, and horny, as from ergotism (dry 
gangrene). 

FEVEK. 

Definition. Whether occurring as an accompaniment 
of inflammation or independently of it, fever is an un- 
natural elevation of the temperature of the body, the direct 
result of an excess of destructive chemical change in the 
blood and tissues, and more remotely of disordered ner- 
vous function. 

Of all extensive inflammations fever is the constant result 
and accompaniment, rising as the inflammation rises or ex- 
tends, and subsiding as the inflammation subsides. It also 
occurs as a distinct affection, as in all the infectious diseases, 
as the result of a specific irritating poison in the system, 
and then is the manifestation of the disease, while a local 
inflammation may or may not be present as a special sec- 
ondary feature of the malady or as an accidental complica- 
tion. 



16 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

Symptoms of Fever. Fever is marked by certain definite 
stages, each of which has its own special manifestations. 
In the cases due to a specific disease-germ, or contagium, 
these are, however, preceded by a period of latency or in- 
cubation in which no symptoms whatever are manifest, but 
during this time the germ is rapidly multiplying in the 
system, and it is only when it has gained a certain increase 
that it disorders the nervous system, wastes the tissues, 
raises the temperature of the body, and induces the other 
phenomena of fever. The same may be said to hold in the 
fever attending on inflammation. The slight and circum- 
scribed inflammation is at first productive of no fever, and 
it is only when it gains a certain extent that the nerves and 
nutrition are disordered so as to bring about a feverish 
condition. 

Premonitory Symptoms. These usually last but a few 
hours and are often entirely absent or unnoticed. There is 
a lack of the customary vigor and spirit, an indisposition to 
exertion, a loss of clearness and vivacity of the eye, a mani- 
fest dullness, with hanging of the head, and frequent shift- 
ing of the limbs as if fatigued. Appetite is less sharp and 
ruminants chew the cud less heartily or persistently. 

Cold Stage. These are soon succeeded by the chill, 
rigor, or shivering fit, in which the hair, especially that 
along the back, stands erect (staring coat), the skin is cold 
and adherent to the structures beneath (hidebound), the ex- 
tremities (legs, tail, ears, horns, nose) are cold, and the 
frame is agitated with slight tremors, or even a shivering 
so violent that a wooden floor or building is made to rattle. 
The back is arched, the legs brought nearer together (crouch- 
ing), the mouth is cool and clammy, the breathing hurried, 
the pulse weak, and it may be rapid, but with a hard beat, 
the bowels costive, and the urine higher colored than nat- 
ural. The temperature of the interior of the body, taken 
by a thermometer in the rectum, is already found above 



InflammatioJi and Fever. 1 7 

the normal, the excessive destruction of tissue having begun, 
and the blood driven from the cooler surface, and accumu- 
lating in the hot interior, at once favors tissue-change and 
maintains the extra heat thereby produced. In cattle the 
end of the tail is soft and flaccid from 'this stage onward. 
The cold stage lasts a few minutes or one or two days in 
different cases. 

Hot Stage. The hot stage appears as a reaction from 
the chill, the contraction in the minute vessels of the skin 
giving place to dilatation, so that the whole surface, including 
the extremities, becomes hot and burning, but still dry and 
parched. The burning is especially noticeable in the more 
vascular parts, like the roots of the horns and ears, the muz- 
zle or snout, the mouth, the hoofs, the bare parts of the 
paws in carnivora, and the mammae (udder) in suckling 
animals. The mucous membranes lining the nose and mouth 
become hot and red, the breathing freer, but not less rapid, 
the pulse softer but accelerated, appetite (and rumination) 
greatly impaired or lost, thirst great, costiveness increased, 
urine diminished and of a higher color, the flow of milk 
greatly impaired or entirely arrested, and the dullness and 
prostration greatly increased. 

The hot stage lasts longer than the cold one, usually per- 
sisting until death or convalescence. It may alternate with 
chills throughout the whole course of the illness, and in the 
fever of inflammation the interruption of the hot stage 
by a chill usually implies either a considerable extension of 
the inflammation or the occurrence of suppuration. 

Defervescence. The decline of the fever may take place 
by a sudden reduction of the body temperature to the natu- 
ral standard, or near it, and a sudden and general improve- 
ment in the symptoms (crisis), or by a slow improvement 
from day to day through a more or less tedious convales- 
cence (lysis). 

Natural Temperature. The body temperature of the 
2 



1 8 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

domestic animals is best taken by inserting the bulb of a 
clinical thermometer three inches or more into the gut (rec- 
tum) and leaving it there three minutes. After it has been 
used, the regristerino; column must be shaken down to below 
the natural temperature of the next animal on which it is to 
be employed. The natural temperature is for the fowl, 
107° F. to 110° F. ; swine, 104° ; goat and sheep, 102° to 
103° ; cow, 101° to 102° ; dog, 99° to 100° ; horse, 99° to 
99.6°. Ranging in the fields, at work, or under a summer 
sun, it may be a degree higher than at other times. Female 
animals in heat are two or three degrees above the natural, 
and in advanced pregnancy and at parturition they may also 
be two degrees higher. 

Fever Temperature. A temporary rise of one or two de- 
grees is unimportant, but a permanent rise indicates fever. 
A rise of ten or twelve degrees is usually fatal. A sudden 
fall to or below the natural, unless with general improve- 
ment in the symptoms, indicates sinking. A similar fall, 
with a free secretion (perspiration, urination, relaxed 
bowels) and general improvement in symptoms, betokens 
recovery. 

Retention of water in the fevered system is as significant 
as the elevated temperature. The patient drinks greedily, 
but all the secretions are arrested or diminished, and liquids 
go on accumulating in the system. The sudden bursting 
forth of secretions (especially sweating) implies that the fever 
has, at least temporarily, given way. 

The production of waste matters in the system is necessa- 
rily proportionate to the amount of tissue destroyed. This 
appears in the blood mainly as urea, the organic acid of 
urine (hippuric in herbivora, uric in carnivora), together 
with phosphates, sulphates, and chlorides. These thrown 
off by the urine give it its high density. If not thus thrown 
off, they remain as poisons in the circulation and bring about 
that prostrate, sunken, debilitated condition which eharac- 



Inflammation and Fever. 19 



terizes the advanced stages of all severe and continued 
fevers — the typhoid condition. This is not to be con- 
founded with the specific typhoid fever, in which a special 
fever-germ expends itself, mainly on the bowels, and that 
runs through a regular course. The typhoid condition is 
that state in which an animal system, already greatly weak- 
ened by a severe disease, and perhaps further prostrated by 
a specific disease-poison, is subjected to a species of poison- 
ing by the retained chemical products of the waste of the 
tissues. 

Types of Fever. These are as characteristic as the types 
of inflammation, and of the same kind. The strong type of 
fever, which attends on an acute inflammation in an other- 
wise healthy, vigorous system, is spoken of as a high or in- 
flammatory fever. The weak type, which occurs in a 
broken-down or debilitated system, or in connection with the 
action of a specific disease germ, or with the saturation of 
the system by waste chemical products, is known as low, 
typhoid (better typhous), or adynamic fever. That form 
which persists in the utterly debilitated system, where the 
power of assimilation is practically lost, is known as hectic. 

TREATMENT OF INFLAMMATION AND FEVEE. 

Treatment will be guided very largely by the type of the 
attendant fever. If that is of a high type, with a hard, full, 
rapid pulse, bright red mucous membranes, a clear eye, and 
well-sustained strength in a strong, vigorous animal, what is 
known as antiphlogistic (depleting, depressing") treatment is 
admissible at the outset. But in many cases with a low 
type of fever, a weak, rapid pulse, pallid, yellow, or livid 
mucous membranes, a coated tongue, a dull or sunken eye, 
much depression and prostration, swaying on the limbs in 
walking, pendent head, ears, eyelids, and lips, and varying 
and irregular temperature of the limbs, etc., such measures 
are forbidden from the first, and tonics and stimulants are 



20 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

demanded from the outset. Between the two extremes 
there are many grades, which demand a judiciously adjusted 
intermediate treatment. The general principles only of each 
characteristic form of treatment can be here formulated, it 
being understood that no two cases can be most advantage- 
ously treated in precisely the same way ; but that according 
to its special grade each case will demand its own specific 
management applied according to the skill of the physician. 
Regimen. An antiphlogistic diet will consist in a moder- 
ate or very sparing amount of non-stimulating food of easy 
digestion (wheat bran or oil-meal in warm, sloppy mash, 
carrots, turnips, beets, potatoes, apples, pumpkins ; fresh, 
tender, green grass, or in winter a little scalded hay, may be 
taken as examples). Ruminants should have no food 
necessitating chewing of the cud ; thus the roots, etc., 
should be pulped or boiled, and hay and even grass must be 
interdicted until rumination is re-established. When food is 
absolutely refused for days in succession, well-boiled gruels 
of oat-meal, barley-meal, linseed-meal, bran, etc., may be 
given from a bottle or by injection. Dogs and cats should 
have only vegetable mush (unbolted flour, barley, or oat- 
meal) with just enough beef -juice to tempt the animal to 
eat a little. Milk with an admixture of oxide of magnesia, 
or even lime-water, is often at once palatable and cooling. 
Drink should be pure water, cool if kept constantly fresh 
before the animal, but warmed to something less than tepid 
if supplied only at long intervals, so that the thirsty patient 
is tempted to drink to excess and chill himself. Rest in a 
clean, well-aired building, free from draughts of cold air 
and with a southern exposure, is desirable, especially in 
winter. The best temperature is usually sixty degrees to 
seventy degrees, especially in inflammations in the chest, and 
extremes of temperature are to be avoided. Clothing will 
depend on the weather. In warm weather it may be often 
discarded, while in winter it should always be sufficient to 



Inflammation and Fever. 21 

obviate the access of chill and consequent aggravation of the 
disease. Whenever the atmosphere can only be kept warm 
at the expense of impurity, it is better to secure the comfort 
of the patient by the requisite clothing than to subject him 
to impure air. As the extremities are the first to suffer 
from cold, loose flannel bandages to the limbs are often 
imperative. 

Remedies. General Heeding, a great resort of our fore- 
fathers, has been long all but discarded from modern prac- 
tice. To-day it is rarely resorted to, except to save from an 
urgent and extreme danger, as in the plethoric cow merging 
into parturient apoplexy, or the fat and overdriven horse, 
gasping for breath and life, in general acute congestion of 
the lungs. There are other cases of extensive acute and dan- 
gerous congestions, especially in a strong, vigorous, and pleth- 
oric patient, in which general bleeding is beneficial in ward- 
ing off threatened death ; but as much sound, discriminating 
judgment is necessary to its safe employment, it is better 
for the amateur stock-owner to resort to less radical meas- 
ures. When resorted to at all, the blood should be drawn 
from a large orifice, in a full stream, to secure the desired 
depressant effect with the smallest loss of blood, and the 
patient should be kept especially quiet and apart from all 
excitement which would tend to counteract the sedative 
action. 

Local bleeding is more extensively applicable than gen- 
eral, as it usually effects the same purpose without the 
permanently weakening effect. It acts in two ways, first, 
by emptying and contracting the vessels in the skin over 
the inflamed organ it solicits a sympathetic contraction of 
the capillary vessels in that organ itself, and thus inaugu- 
rates a progress toward recovery ; and second, by so much 
as it draws blood to the surface it diminishes the blood- 
pressure on the deeper inflamed organ, and affords a better 
opportunity for the restoration of the healthy circulation 



22 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

and function. Local bleeding may be practiced by simple 
scarification or leeches, or better, by cupping with or with- 
out scarification. To apply leeches, the skin must first be 
shaved. To cup, it must at least be greased. As a cup, 
an ordinary large drinking-glass may be used, the air con- 
tained in it being driven out by a lighted taper, and then 
the taper being withdrawn, the mouth of the cup is in- 
stantly and accurately applied on the skin and held there, 
until, as it cools, it draws up the skin within it and clings 
like a sucker. A number of these may be applied accord- 
ing to the extent of the inflammation, and, if desired, they 
may be removed, the part scarified, and the cup reapplied. 
The cupping usually effects more than a mere local attrac- 
tion of blood ; it very commonly causes a free circulation 
in the whole skin, a generally diffused warmth, and even 
perspiration. Thus we may secure the derivation of blood 
from the inflamed part, the cooling of a large mass of blood 
in the extensive cutaneous circulation, the cooling of the 
entire system by the return of this blood internally, the 
elimination of injurious waste matters through the skin, 
the lowering of the febrile heat and tension, and a better 
functional activity of all the organs of the body. 

Similar good results are obtained from all remedies that 
induce surface warmth and vascularity and a free secretion 
from the skin. 

Warm baths, for animals to which they can be applied, 
abstract blood temporarily from the inflamed internal or- 
gans, diminish the blood-pressure, and really cool the system, 
beside securing elimination from the skin and other secret- 
ing surfaces. They may be commenced warm (80° F.) and 
gradually cooled down to 65° F. after the skin has become 
freely active. In the larger quadrupeds, in which the warm 
bath is practically impossible, the same revulsion of blood 
and warmth to the skin may be secured by rags wrung out 
of hot {almost scalding) water, wrapped tightly round the 



Inflammation and Fever. 23 

body covered, with two or more dry blankets, and kept 
tightly applied against the surface by elastic circingles. 
The legs may be rubbed with straw wisps till warm, and 
then loosely bandaged, or applications of red pepper, am- 
monia, or mustard, may be made prior to bandaging. In 
place of hot-water rags, bags loosely filled with bran, chaff, 
or other light agent, heated to 110° F., may be applied 
round the body, or, where it is available, a Turkish or 
steam bath may be resorted to. These hot cutaneous appli- 
cations, to produce glow and perspiration, are especially 
valuable in the chill that heralds a violent inflammation, 
and if that can be suddenly checked by this means the in- 
flammation will often oe warded off, or at least rendered 
slight and easily controllable. After perspiring for half an 
hour the patient may be gradually uncovered, rubbed dry, 
and covered with a dry, warm blanket. If the skin is still 
glowing, a slight sponging with cool or cold water may 
beneficially precede the rubbing and drying. 

Cold Baths. In cases of very high fever a full cold bath 
(68° F.) may be employed for fifteen minutes, and repeated 
as often as the temperature rises. In many cases of parturi- 
tion fever in cows great benefit accrues from sponging the 
body with cold water and allowing it to to evaporate from 
the burning skin. In the extreme fever of heat apoplexy 
(sunstroke), with a temperature of 110° F. and upward, a 
strong current of cold water from a hose directed on the 
head and body often gives the best results. In ordinary 
fevers in large animals the coldjpac/a will often serve a good 
purpose. Wring a blanket out of water (cold or tepid, ac- 
cording to the height of the fever and the strength and 
power of reaction of the patient), wrap it round the body, 
cover it with several dry blankets so that no part is exposed, 
and keep the whole in close contact with the skin by elastic 
circingles. In fifteen minutes the skin should be glowing 
and perspiring, and in half an hour the wrappings should 



24 The Farmer 's Veterinary Adviser. 

be removed, a little at a time, the parts rubbed dry and cov- 
ered with a dry woolen blanket. It may be repeated as 
often as the fever rises. 

Diaphoretics. Besides these remedial methods of induc- 
ing a revulsion and glow in the skin with perspiration, there 
may be resorted to the medicinal diaphoretics. Among 
these may be included copious drinks and injections of 
warm water, acetate of ammonia, antimony, ipecacuan, or 
pilocarpin, or one of the sedatives, aconite, veratrum, or 
opixim, etc. Many a threatened acute inflammation has 
been to a great extent cut short and nipped in the bud — 
the stage of chill — by warm clothing, active hand-rubbing, 
and such an apparently unscientific nauseant as tobacco. 

When the preliminary stage has passed and the hot stage 
of the fever has set in, cooling and eliminating agents are 
especially called for. 

Laxatives. In many cases, and especially in those with 
marked constipation or bowels loaded with indigestible ma- 
terials, a laxative is beneficial. For the horse, aloes, or, 
often better, sulphate of soda, and for cattle or sheep, the 
latter, or Epsom salts, will at once remove an irritant, cool 
the general system, draw off much blood and nervous energy 
to the bowels, and secure a considerable depletion and 
elimination from the intestines. For swine, dogs, and cats 
castor-oil or salts may be used, and for fowls castor-oil. If 
the mucous membranes are yellow, the tongue furred, and 
faeces scanty, hard, and foetid, a dose of calomel (horse or 
ox, one drachm ; sheep or pig, one scruple ; dog, three 
grains ; chicken, one-half grain) with tartar emetic (horse or 
ox, two drachms ; sheep, twenty grains ; swine, one-half 
grain ; dog, one-fourth grain ; chicken, one-eighth grain) 
may be given and followed in ten hours by one of the laxa- 
tives named above. 

Diuretics. In the absence of any manifest disorder of 
the digestive organs, the laxative may be omitted and re- 



Inflammation and Fever. 25 

frigerant diuretics resorted to. Acetate of ammonia or po- 
tassa, nitre, tartrate of potassa, carbonates of potassa or 
soda, may be used along with sedatives. 

Sedatives. Of the sedatives, aconite, bromide of potas- 
sium, veratrum, hyoscyamus, or chloral hydrate may be 
used according to the special indications. As an example 
the following may be prescribed for the horse : 5, • Nitrate 
of potassa, two ounces ; bromide of potassium, one ounce. 
Mix. Divide into eight powders. Give one every six 
hours. 

Alkalies: Resolvents. When the organ inflamed is a 
serous membrane in which dangerous adhesions or other 
functional disorders are likely to occur from newly formed 
false membranes, their formation should be counteracted as 
far as possible by the free use of alkalies (carbonates of 
soda, potash, or ammonia, nitre, iodide of potassium, muri- 
ate of ammonia, etc.), and in the same conditions excessive 
effusion should be controlled by free action on the kidneys. 

Tonic Refrigerants. Later, when both inflammation 
and fever have been somewhat reduced, temperature, breath- 
ing, and pulse rendered more moderate, eye clearer, and 
even appetite perhaps slightly improved, the sedatives may 
give place to refrigerating tonics, such as mineral acids 
(nitric, muriatic, sulphuric, or phosphoric), in combination 
with bitters (quassia, cascarilla, calumba, gentian, salicin), 
without as yet the suspension of refrigerant diuretics. Thus 
for the horse the following : fy . Pharmaceutical nitric acid, 
two drams ; infusion of gentian, ten ounces ; nitrate of 
potassa, two ounces. Dissolve. Give one ounce every six 
hours. Of the newer refrigerants antipyrin is one of the 
safest and best. 

In Convalescence. When convalescence has fairly set in, 
the fever has subsided, and there remains merely some de- 
bility with a remnant of the inflammatory exudation to be 
removed or organized into tissue, or when an abscess has 



26 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

developed and burst, the tonics must be even more freely 
given, the mineral acids may even give place to prepa- 
rations of iron, and the diet must be made increasingly 
liberal. But throughout the whole progress of the disease 
the bowels should be carefully watched. Costiveness may 
quickly undo all that has been gained, hence any indica- 
tion of this should be met by laxative food (boiled flaxseed, 
etc.), or, this failing, by injections or laxatives. Similarly, 
if a freer action of the kidneys seems to be necessary for 
elimination of waste matters or to reduce fever, diuretics 
should be continuously kept up. 

Treatment of Adynamic Inflammation and Fever. In 
treating loio asthenic or adynamia inflammation all de- 
pression and depletion is to be carefully avoided. Even 
laxatives must be employed with extreme caution. If ab- 
solutely necessary it is best to give them in small (half) 
doses and supplement their action by liberal injections of 
hot water. Elimination of waste matter from the blood 
and system is still to be sought, but it must be by stimulat- 
ing diuretics (sweet spirits of nitre, carbonate, acetate, or 
muriate of ammonia, digitalis), and direct stimulants and 
tonics must be given from the first (ammonia, wine, strong 
ale, whisky, brandy, ether, gentian, calumba, mix vomica). 
For the horse the following may serve as an example : 
]J . Sweet spirits of nitre, four ounces ; sulphuric ether, two 
ounces; tincture of gentian, ten ounces; digitalis, one dram. 
Mix. Dose, two ounces in a pint of cool water four times 
a day. When there is great debility and prostration, am- 
moniacal and alcoholic stimulants must be given freely, 
while if the fever heat rises very unduly the cooling diuretics 
(citrate, tartrate, or acetate of potassa, or nitre, etc.), and 
even sedatives (bromide of potassium, chloral hydrate, sa- 
licin, salicylate of soda), must be resorted to. In weak or 
prostrate subjects antipyrin may often be used with ad- 
vantage, as in moderate doses it effectually lowers the tern- 



Inflammation and Fever. 27 

perature without decreasing the force of the circulation or 
affecting the blood injuriously. If there is any indication 
of a special depressing poison in the sj'stem, or of the ab- 
sorption of septic or other noxious matter from a wound, 
antiseptics (hydrochloric acid, or salicylic acid, sulphite of 
soda, quinia, or chlorate of potassa) may be advantageously 
added to the prescription. 

In these cases of asthenic inflammation, as in the ad- 
vanced and debilitated stages of sthenic inflammation, the 
diet should be as good as the patient can digest. Boiled 
oats, barley, or flaxseed, rich, well-boiled gruels, and beef- 
tea (even for herbivora) may frequently be resorted to with 
advantage. 

Local Treatment of Inflammation. In all forms of 
superficial inflammation the local treatment occupies an 
important place. The persistent application of cold (cold 
water in a stream, ice-bags, freezing mixtures) will some- 
times overcome the tendency to inflammation or arrest 
it. This is especially sought when a violent inflamma- 
tion (as in a wounded joint) threatens to destroy an im- 
portant organ. If adopted it must be persisted in, as if 
it is suspended too soon the reaction is likely to make 
matters worse than ever. Cold astringent applications 
have a similar tendency. Sugar-of lead, one-half ounce; 
laudanum, one ounce ; water, one quart, may be kept ap- 
plied by means of a linen bandage. The water may often 
be advantageously replaced by extract of wych-hazel. If 
there is an exposed surface the lotion may be made slightly 
antiseptic (carbolic acid, one dram ; or sulphurous acid 
solution, five ounces; water, one quart). Hot applica- 
tions, fomentations, poultices are nearly always appro- 
priate, and when adopted should, like cold ones, be kept up 
as continuously as possible. These soothe alike the super- 
ficial and deeper parts, the latter through sympathy, pro- 
ducing first a relaxation of vessels and tissues, and later a 



28 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

contraction of the former attended by pallor of the surface. 
They greatly favor suppuration when that is already inevita- 
ble, though in other cases the} 7 may obviate it by checking 
at an early stage the acute inflammatory process on which 
it depends. Any bland agent that will retain heat and 
moisture will make an excellent poultice, though flaxseed- 
meal is the type of a soothing demulcent application. Yery 
slight inflammation may be successfully treated at the out- 
set with a stimulating embrocation (alcohol or camphorated 
spirit), yet in the more violent type of acute inflammation 
all local excitants tend to aggravate the disease. In these 
violent forms the activity of the disease should be first 
abated by local soothing and general sedative measures, and 
then the part over the inflamed organ may be safely 
treated with a stimulating liniment or even a blister. In 
such cases the liniment first acts as a derivative of blood 
and nervous energy from the inflamed part, and later and 
still more beneficially by securing in it a sympathetic heal- 
ing process, like that set up in the skin. In raw sores 
where inflammation has been set up the granulations may 
become dropsical or excessive, bulging beyond the adjacent 
skin as proud flesh. This should be repressed by touching 
it gently with some mild caustic (lunar caustic), so as to pro- 
duce a thin white film, and the remote cause of the inflam- 
mation (often a local irritant) should be sought and removed. 
In some unhealthy sores tending to excessive granulation, 
the compound tincture of myrrh and aloes may be applied 
daily with great benefit. 

Blistering. In subacute and chronic inflammations and 
in those acute forms in which the violence of the inflamma- 
tory action has been already subdued by soothing measures, 
blisters and other counter-irritants may be employed to 
counteract the remaining inflammatory action. These act 
primarily by drawing off blood and nervous energy from 
the inflamed organ to the skin, and secondarily, by estab- 



Inflammation and Fever. 29 

lishing a sympathetic healing process in the diseased part, 
simultaneously with the work of recovery in the skin, when 
the blister has spent its action. But if applied above a part 
which is still violently inflamed, it is apt to seriously aggra- 
vate that, through this same sympathy with the part suffer- 
ing under the rising of the blister. In this way great 
and irreparable injury is often done through the laudations 
of particular blisters for the cure of given diseases, without 
any reference to the stage or grade of such disease. The 
value of a blister depends far more on the time of its appli- 
cation than on the ingredients of which it may be com- 
posed. A simple formula is as follows : Powdered can- 
tharides, 2 drams ; morphine, 2 grains ; lard, 1 ounce. Mix. 
Cut the hair close to the skin from the part to be blistered, 
and rub in for two or three minutes against the direction of 
the hair. The ointment must be rubbed in more energeti- 
cally in winter than in summer, when the circulation in the 
skin is freer and the oleaginous matters remain more liquid 
and penetrating. For cattle, the addition of one dram 
of oil of turpentine will usually be necessary. For sheep, a 
mixture of equal parts of strong aqua ammonia and olive- 
oil, well shaken together, and rubbed on the skin, will usu- 
ally suffice. There is no need for removal of the wool. 

Firing. This acts in nearly the same manner as a blister, 
and demands similar caution in its application. It is es- 
pecialty available in subacute and chronic diseases of the, 
joints, bones, and tendons, and may be made more or less, 
severe according to the nature and obstinacy of the disease. 
It is applied in points or in lines at intervals of pne-Jialf to 
one inch, and penetrating one-third, one-half, or entirely 
through the skin. The hotter the Iron, the less the pain, 
but the greater the danger of destruction of the inter- 
vening skin by the excess of radiating heat. Hence the, 
contact of the lieated iron with any onq part must be 
judiciously graduated to the heat of the iron and the del}- 



30 The Farmer^s Veterinary Adviser. 

cacy of the skiu, and should never exceed a fraction of a 
second. But it is only in the greatest extremity that the 
stock-owner should himself undertake such an operation, so 
that any lengthened description is superfluous. 

Abscess. The treatment of abscess consists in warm poul- 
tices (flax-seed meal, wheat-bran, boiled carrots) or fomenta- 
tions in the early stages, to hasten and perfect suppuration, 
and thus to dispose of the superfluous and injurious consol- 
idated lymph, and prevent the threatened destruction of 
tissue. The poultices should be put on warm (about 100° F.) 
and replaced by fresh ones when they have become soured 
or dry. Poulticing should be kept up without intermission 
till the hard inflamed mass has become soft and fluctuating 
in the centre, and, indeed, until this liquefaction has ex- 
tended throughout its whole substance. If the abscess is 
deeply seated, it may be desirable to continue it until the 
superincumbent layers of tissue have become absorbed and 
the pus is felt to be separated from the air only by an atten- 
uated layer of skin. Then it is opened with a lancet or 
sharp knife inserted in the centre of the thinnest part, where 
the pressure of the advancing pus has pushed all impor- 
tant structures aside, so that incision is made practically 
without danger. The opening should be large, so that the 
finger, previously dipped in a carbolic-acid solution (1 : 50) or 
carbolated vaseline (1 : 20), may be introduced and its ex- 
tent ascertained. Usually the opening will be sufficiently 
low to secure a constant and free drainage of all pus subse- 
quently formed from the walls of the abscess. If, however, 
sacs exist beneath the level of the opening in which the pus 
must collect, then the incision must be extended in a down- 
ward direction until it will drain such sac or sacs. If this 
would produce too large a wound, then a counter-opening 
should be made leading downward and outward from the 
lowest part of the sac. For this purpose a curved staff is 
carried to the lowest part of the abscess, and pressed out- 



Inflammation and Fever. 31 

ward so as to project under the skin, and cut down upon 
from without. In doing this important structures are largely 
pushed aside, yet they may be left in the way of the incis- 
ion, so that safety demands a knowledge of the parts to be 
cut. More than one opening may be required from differ- 
ent dependent sacs, though in other cases such sacs may be 
made continuous, and be drained from one opening by 
breaking down the partitions between them. Here again 
there is danger, as arteries and nerves sometimes pass 
through the centre of an abscess, and dangerous bleeding 
or paralysis may follow their division. 

If the lower or drainage opening from an abscess is neces- 
sarily small, or so compressed by adjacent structures as to 
interrupt the free and constant flow of pus, a drainage-tube 
of perforated caoutchouc, or a bunch of horse-hair or silk, 
should be inserted to secure a perfect discharge. Such 
agents should be clean and dipped in a solution of carbolic 
acid (1 : 50) before insertion. When the sac has become 
obliterated by contraction of its walls the canal of discharge 
may be allowed to heal gradually, from within outward, by 
withdrawing the drainage-tube a little day by day, cutting 
off the projecting portion, and allowing the canal to close 
behind it. 

When poultices appear insufficient to precipitate suppura- 
tion, more stimulating applications may at times be adopted. 
Blisters at times succeed, but there is a danger (especially 
great in specific phlegmons like those of strangles) that they 
may drive back the inflammatory products to form in other 
organs, perhaps deep-seated and vital ones. The common 
domestic remedy of sugar and soap is more certain and safe, 
or it may be replaced by a mixture of salt, soap, and crude 
Canada balsam. 



CHAPTER II. 
CONTAGIOUS AND EPIZOOTIC DISEASES. 

Their importance and classification Germs the cause of plagues. Pm-ely 
contagious diseases preventible. Propagation of disease-germs outside the 
animal body. General characters of micro-organisms causing disease. Form 
inconstant in different media. Viability of bacterium and spore. What 
they eat, breathe, and excrete. Alkaloids and ferments. Antagonism be- 
tween bacteria and blood-globules and tissue-nuclei. Relative susceptibility 
of blood, lymph, and solid organ. Effects of acid and alkaline media, of 
light, electricity, heat, cold. Fecundity of bacteria. List of bacteria pro- 
ducing animal diseases. Rendering animals insusceptible to a plague. 
Direct cause of acquired immunity. Exhaustion theory. Antidotal theory. 
Condensation theory. Vital resistance. Immunity by good hygiene ; by 
tonics and anti-ferments ; by a first attack ; by inducing a mild type of the 
plague ; by inoculation of a closely related disease ; by inoculation of a 
minimum amount of virus ; by arrest of the disease while still local — anti- 
septic ; by inoculation in an unimportant organ ; by inoculation in the veins ; 
by inoculation with germs weakened by passing through another genus of ani- 
mal ; by inoculation with germs weakened by cultivation in special media j 
by inoculation with germs grown for long in free contact with air ; by 
inoculation with germs weakened by condensed oxygen ; by inoculation with 
germs weakened by long rest in free air ; by inoculation with the sterilized 
products of germs. Advantages of the use of sterilized virus. Drawbacks. 
Limitation of protection by sterilized products. Radical extinction of plagues. 
Measures for extinction of a prevailing plague. To exclude an animal 
plague from a country. Disinfection. 

These are among the most important of the whole range 
of diseases of* animals, being the most destructive to the 
animals themselves and in many cases to man, and being at 
the same time, as a rule, preventible by a rigid adherence 
to sanitary laws. Of their devastations we have the most 
appalling accounts in the records of antiquity as well as in 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 33 

recent times. In the time of Moses they ravaged Egypt 
until, says the record, " all the cattle of Egypt died ; " nor 
was man spared, for " boils and blains " broke out on man 
and beast. — Ex. IX. 3. At the siege of Troy the Grecian 
army was decimated by a similar infliction, animals and men 
perishing in a common destruction. — Iliad. So it has been 
down through the ages, the great extension of the plagues 
being usually determined by general wars and the accumu- 
lation of cattle drawn from all sources (infected and sound) 
into the commissariat parks. In the first half of the 
eighteenth century it is estimated that 200,000,000 head of 
cattle perished in Europe in connection with the Austrian 
wars. These plagues again entered Italy in 1793 with the 
Austrian troops, and in three years carried off 3,000,000 to 
4,000j000 cattle in that peninsula. More recently, rapid 
railroad and steamboat traffic and extended commerce have 
taken the place of war in favoring their diffusion. Free 
trade between England and the Continent since 1842 has 
cost the former $450,000,000 in thirty years, and as much as 
$40,000,000 in 1865-66 during the prevalence of the Kin- 
derpest. A similar importation cost Egypt 300,000 head of 
cattle (nearly the whole stock of the country) in 1842, and 
others have caused ruinous but unestimated losses in Aus- 
tralia, Cape of Good Hope, and South America. On the 
other hand, some of the most exposed countries of Europe, 
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein, Olden- 
burg, Mecklenburg, and Switzerland have long kept clear of 
these plagues by the simple expedient of excluding all in- 
fected animals or their products, and promptly stamping 
out the disease by the slaughter of the sick, followed by 
thorough disinfection, when they haye been accidentally in- 
troduced. Exclusively breeding districts, in Spain, Portu- 
gal, Normandy, and the Scottish Highlands, into which no 
strange cattle are ever imported, also keep clear of nearly 
all of these destructive pestilences. 
3 



34 The Fanner's Veterinary Adviser. 

It is unquestionable that the animal plagues are propa- 
gated, in Western Europe and America, only by the disease- 
germs produced in countless myriads in the body of a dis- 
eased animal and conveyed from that to the healthy. It 
follows that the destruction of the infected subjects and the 
thorough disinfection of the carcass, manure, buildings, etc., 
is the most economical treatment of all the more fatal forms 
of contagious disease in live stock. For the less fatal forms, 
the most perfect separation and seclusion, and the thorough 
disinfection of all with which they have come in contact 
is still imperative. 

To the first class of exotic maladies belong : Small-pox in 
sheep and birds, the lung-plague or contagious pleuro- 
pneumonia of cattle, the Rinderpest or cattle-plague, the 
malignant disease of the generative organs in solipeds, and 
malignant cholera in all animals. These demand separa- 
tion, destruction, and disinfection. To the second or less 
fatal class of exotic maladies belongs the Aphthous fever or 
foot and mouth disease. This demands seclusion and dis- 
infection. 

Beside these maladies, that are foreign to our soil and 
which are not to be feared except as the result of importa- 
tion from abroad and subsequent transmission by contagion, 
there is a very important class which, though perhaps not 
generated in America, are widely disseminated over the 
continent and spread by contagion. Among these may be 
named : Glanders and farcy, canine madness, contagious 
foot-rot, tuberculosis, bacillar anthrax, vibrionic {emphy- 
sematous) anthrax, Texan-fever, swine-plague, influenza, 
strangles, canine distemper, and perhaps the variola or pox 
of horse, cow, goat, pig, and dog. All of these down to 
swine-plague, like foreign contagious affections, demand 
separation and disinfection, with destruction or not of the 
diseased, according to the severity and diffnsibility of the 
particular malady. The remainder, from influenza onward, 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 35 

are either too mild to warrant such measures, or too easily 
spread to be satisfactorily controlled by them. 

GERMS THE CAUSE OF PLAGUES. 

Since the above was written the demonstration of the es- 
sential causes of a number of these plagues in microscopical 
vegetable ferments (microphytes) has practically opened a 
new field in pathology, prevention, and treatment. When a 
plague is found to be due to seed sown in a susceptible 
animal system, such seed being not a product of the 
animal body, but derived from a different kingdom (the 
Vegetable), and introduced from without the economy, it 
follows that every case of such disease implies that the body 
of the animal victim has been seeded for that particular 
crop as a field is for wheat, barley, or rye, and in both cases 
alike the seed sown has come from a preceding crop and 
a preceding sowing. The parallel may be put thus : No 
seed == no wheat ; no germ == no plague. 

PURELY CONTAGIOUS DISEASES PREVENTABLE WITH CERTAINTY. 

The moment we apprehend the fact that a particular 
plague is essentially dependent for its existence on a specific 
germ, we are compelled to the conclusion that it is quite 
possible to prevent the spread of such a disease and to ex- 
tirpate it from a country in which it has already gained a 
foothold. If at a given date all English sparrows on the 
American continent were destroyed, we would be rid of the 
race until specimens were again imported. So with a plague 
caused by a vegetable germ ; let all plague-stricken animals 
and all the living disease-germs be destroyed, and the plague 
would be certainly abolished. Ordinary hygiene makes no 
such radical extinction of a plague. Clean, airy, wholesome 
surroundings retard the progress of a plague and favor the 
production of a milder type of the malady, but they allow 
the preservation of the germ, ready to resume all its pristine 



36 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

violence when conditions are favorable. As a field of wheat 
suffers alike in quantity and quality from poor soil and lack 
of cultivation, manure, rain, sunshine, and heat, but in spite 
of all brings to maturity a seed for a future crop, so the 
plague-germ languishes somewhat when the animal systems 
and their surroundings do not favor its propagation, yet it 
does not perish, but from the mild case it advances to the 
more severe and deadly whenever the circumstances become 
more favorable. As an instance of the obstinate vitality of 
the disease-germ, we see that in an uninterrupted open-air 
life, in a land of perpetual summer, the lung-plague of cattle 
advanced more rapidly, proved more deadly, and defied 
human control more successfully on the grassy plains of 
Australia and South Africa than in any other part of the 
globe. 

No measure less radical than the destruction of every dis- 
eased animal and its infecting products will furnish a 
guarantee of the permanent extinction of plagues spread by 
living vegetable germs only, but in all such plagues the de- 
struction of the germ gives a perfect assurance of this re- 
sult, and is the bounden duty of the Government. 

PROPAGATION OF DISEASE-GERMS OUTSIDE THE ANIMAL BODY. 

The absolute destruction of disease-germs and the extinc- 
tion of the corresponding plagues is limited by the fact that 
the germs of certain maladies live and increase out of the 
animal body. Prominent among these may be named the 
germs of anthrax, typhoid fever, yellow fever, and cholera, 
which increase not only in numbers, but often in deadliness 
as well, in sewers, cesspools, dung-heaps, filth-saturated 
soils, and undrained impervious ground which is rich in de- 
composing organic matter. Where a germ of a given plague 
is permanent^ domiciled in a soil favorable to its preserva- 
tion and growth it is manifest that the disposal of sick ani- 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 37 

mals and the disinfection of their products will not eradicate 
the disease from the locality. It must be also destroyed in 
the soil as well, and fortunately this can sometimes be done 
by thorough drainage, exposure to the air, and prolonged 
and thorough cultivation. 

Most of the disease-germs heretofore discovered have been 
cultivated in carefully secluded glass vessels, in animal 
liquids (soups, etc.), or on semi-solid organic bodies (pep- 
tonized gelatine, etc.), showing very clearly the possibility 
of survival outside the animal body. On the other hand, the 
history of certain animal plagues (Rinderpest, lung-plague, 
glanders, small-pox) furnishes no instance of the outbreak 
of the disease without a pre-existing case as a direct cause, 
but gives numerous examples in which, after the immunity 
of a given country for a great length of time, a specific 
plague has been imported from without and has thereafter 
spread with almost unprecedented severity. In such cases, 
even where the soil is favorable to the preservation and 
multiplication of the germ, it is still necessarj' first to im- 
plant the seeds, as it was necessary to go abroad for the 
seeds of the thistle which now grows so luxuriantly in many 
of our fields. 

It follows that, instead of abandoning all effort for the ex- 
tinction of plagues, the germs of which can increase in the 
soil, etc., we should avail of every means of excluding their 
seeds from our shores, or, if they have already gained a 
foothold, we should prevent them from spreading and con- 
taminating new soils, and thus multiplying the permanent 
centers of infection. 

GENERAL CHARACTERS OF THE MICROPHYTES CAUSING DIS- 
EASE. 

The germs that determine specific diseases in animals 
nearly all belong to the lowest order of vegetable life, known 
as, Bacteria, Schizophytes, Schizomycetes, or Microbia. As 



38 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

found in the animal fluids these may be distinguished 
(after Du Bary) as follows : 

I. Asjporece. That don't form Spores. 
1. Cocci. Round or ovoid cells. 

a. Micrococcus. Yery minute round or ovoid cells ; 

singly, in chains, or in formless gelatinous 
masses. 

b. Macrococcus or " Monas." Larger round or ovoid 

cells. 

c. Diplococcus. Cells in pairs. 

d. Staphylococcus. Cells in groups. 

e. Streptococcus. Cells in fine chains. 

f. Sarcinse. Cells in cubes of four or eight. 

g. Ascococcus. Cells in larger irregular colonies or 

groups. 
II. Arthrosporece. Form Spores — by segmentation. 

a. Bacterium. Short rods. 

b. Leptothrix. Rodlike cells remaining united in 

very fine filaments. 

c. Cladothrix. Filaments with apparent branching. 

d. Spirochete. Long flexible sinuous filaments. 
III. EndosporecB. Form Spores within the mother cell. 

a. Bacillus. Filament short, straight, or bent ; rigid, 

with distinct joints. 

b. Vibrio. Wavy, very flexible filament. 

c. Spirillum. Short spiral rigid filament. 

Many microphytes are furnished with delicate mobile 
filaments by which they move actively in spite of their 
rigid forms, and whip into active motion small bodies (cells, 
granules) in their vicinity. 

The form and mobility of microphytes are by no means 
constant. The rigid bacillus may, in different media out of 
the body, grow out into long waving branches, forming 
spores, and even into beautiful net-works. Organisms, too, 



Contagious and JEpizootic Diseases. 39 

which at one stage of their existence are perfectly motion- 
less, are at other stages endowed with powers of active 
movement. The spores, like dried grain as compared with 
the cereal plant, have a greatly enhanced vitality, can sur- 
vive indefinitely without change, and in some cases resist 
even a boiling temperature for a length of time. 

All bacteria live upon organic matter, and some use up a 
large amount of oxygen by way of respiration — the acerobia 
of Pasteur. Others can adapt themselves to a comparative 
privation of oxygen, and some, it would appear, can live alto- 
gether apart from the air, obtaining the oxygen necessary 
to their existence from the decomposition of the nitroge- 
nous animal or vegetable substances on which they feed : 
These last are the anwrobia of Pasteur. A large class of 
the air-breathing bacteria are mere scavengers (saprophytes) 
feeding upon decomposing organic matters and resolving 
their component parts into carbon dioxide and other simple 
bodies which constitute food for plants. Thus they exer- 
cise a most important function in nature, in transforming 
into plant-food the products of vegetables and animals which 
would otherwise accumulate in endless quantity. A fer- 
menting manure-heap or a decomposing carcass or plant is 
a grand exhibition of this beneficent work, and the nitrifi- 
cation in soils is equally the work of these invisible servants 
of nature. 

The products of bacteria growth are very numerous and 
vary much with the species and the medium in which they 
grow. The products of those growing in free air are, how- 
ever, usually simple and comparatively harmless, while those 
that have only a limited supply of air and that obtain their 
oxygen by breaking up nitrogenous matters are usually, in 
part at least, more complex in chemical composition and are 
more likely to prove poisonous. Thus it is that disease- 
germs increase in virulence and in their fatal power after 
they have been grown for several generations in the tissues 



40 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

of animals with a very limited supply of air ; and thus, too, it 
is that some maintain and even increase their infectiousness 
when grown in organic matter out of the body, but apart 
from the action of the atmosphere; for example, in close 
spaces beneath barn floors, in cesspools, closed drains, in 
privy-vaults, in graves, in dense or clay soils, in marshy 
ground, and in soils rich in organic matter and in which the 
gases resulting from decomposition drive out the air. (See 
Author's article in New York Medical Record for June 
18, 1881). 

Flugge gives the following list of the chief products of bac- 
teria : " Gases, as C0 3 , II, CH 4 , H 2 S, KTI 3 ; water ; sulphur ; 
volatile bodies, such as triinethylamin, alcohol, formic acid, 
acetic acid, butyric acid ; fixed acids, as lactic acid, malic 
acid, succinic acid, oxalic acid, tartaric acid ; sulpho-acids, as 
taurin, amides of the fatty acids, especially leucin, alanin, 
etc. ; bodies of the aromatic series, as tyrosin, phenol, cresol ; 
redaction products, as indol, hydroparacumaric acid ; com- 
plex molecules, as carbohydrates, pepton, hydrolytic fer- 
ments ; finally, coloring matters and poisonous alkaloid 
substances." 

Of these the simplest bodies, at the head of which are 
the gases, are especially the products of bacterial growth in 
free air, and these, under the circumstances of their pro- 
duction, are usually harmless to the animal organism. The 
more elaborate and complex bodies, however, represented 
especially by the poisonous alkaloids and the hydrolytic 
ferments, are, par excellence, the product of bacteria growth 
in albuminoid substances, and in comparative absence of air ; 
and these are the products which are especially poisonous 
to the animal organism. In attacking the animal economy, 
and above all the living cells of the lymph, blood, and tis- 
sues, the alkaloid and other poisons destroy their life, or at 
least impair their vital powers, so that they can no longer 
with sufficient force exercise their own protective power of 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 4 1 

digesting and assimilating such organic matter as is pre- 
sented to them, and in this weakened state they are readily 
acted upon by the hydrolytic ferment of the bacterium and 
reduced to a soluble product which the bacterium can take 
into its substance and assimilate. This explains why so 
many bacteria can grow in the animal tissues that can not 
grow in the blood. In the solid tissue the cell is fixed and 
immovable, and must sustain the whole force of the undi- 
luted bacteria product (alkaloid and ferment). If at all 
susceptible to these, it is therefore liable to succumb. But 
in the circulating blood, the constantly moving liquid speed- 
ily dilutes and weakens the bacteria poisons, so as to fre- 
quently render them harmless, and meanwhile the bacteria 
themselves are constantly assailed by new streams of the 
digesting product of the blood-globules, and are nearly 
always weakened or even digested by the blood-globules. 
Hence, too, the preference shown by the disease-producing 
bacteria for the lymphatic system over the blood. In the 
lymphatic system the circulation is slow, especially in the 
microscopic net-works in which the lymphatics originate in 
the tissues, and in the glands in which the lymph is delayed 
and its cells multiplied. Here, accordingly, we have a con- 
dition approximating to that of the cells in the solid tis- 
sues. The comparatively stagnant lymph-cells in the radical 
net-works and glands are attacked by the concentrated poi- 
sons of the bacteria, no longer diluted and weakened by the 
active circulation of liquid that takes place in the blood- 
vessels, and the bacteria, living and multiplying at their ex- 
pense, invade the surrounding tissue as well, and can per- 
haps after a time carry their invasion even into the blood 
with good prospect of success. It should be noted that 
even in the solid tissues an attempt is made to meet and 
conquer the invading army of bacteria. As soon as the 
irritant products begin to act on the tissue, inflammation is 
set up and large numbers of the white globules of the blood 



42 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

are passed out of the vessels, into the affected tissue, 
and meanwhile the original fixed cells of that tissue also 
undergo a rapid multiplication, so that the inflamed part 
soon becomes a centre of extraordinarily active cell-growth. 
In many cases the defence is successful and the invading 
bacteria are devoured or thrown off in a mass of pus, or in 
a circumscribed slough. In others, the accumulating cells 
which constitute the army of defence sink under the lethal 
power of the bacteria products, and the bacteria invasion is 
carried into the entire system. 

That bacteria attack the vital powers in other ways is 
undoubted. The production of the poisons above named, 
by the decomposition of the albuminoid tissues of the body, 
implies the destruction of these important tissues, the im- 
pairment of function and of the strength, and, it may be, 
death or long-standing debility. In other cases, as in the 
case of the Bacillus anthracis, they abstract oxygen from the 
red blood-globules, and reduce the blood to a venous con- 
dition in which it can no longer nourish the body nor 
maintain the vital functions, and hence speedy death is the 
rule in that infection. In still other cases, illustrated again 
by the Bacillus anthracis, the bacteria accumulate in the 
lymph- and blood-vessels in such numbers as to block the 
vessels and stop circulation in the part affected, and bring 
about a corresponding train of evil consequences. 

Wyssokowitsch found that, in case of a survival of bacteria 
injected into the blood, they passed in part into the -white 
blood-globules, and were arrested mainly in the liver, spleen, 
kidney, and marrow of bone ; unless, indeed, the particular 
germ had a predilection for a special organ. In these dif- 
ferent organs they had passed into the cells (endothelial) 
lining the capillary blood-vessels. He even attributes the 
prolonged latency of certain contagious diseases to the lodg- 
ment of the germs in an inactive condition for a length of 
time in these endothelial cells. This, however, lacks con- 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 43 

firmation, and is rather improbable, considering the assimi- 
lating power of the animal cell. 

It remains to be noted that other conditions than the 
presence and absence of air (oxygen) affect the develop- 
ment and pathogenic power of the bacteria. 

Thus, as the animal fluids generally are alkaline (the secre- 
tion of the stomach and contents of the large intestine ex- 
cepted), the bacteria that live in them are those adapted to 
an alkaline medium, and are at once debilitated or killed 
by being placed in an acid medium. Hence, most patho- 
genic bacteria, taken in with the food, are either killed or 
rendered harmless by passing through the acid stomach, and 
those only successfully run this gauntlet that are taken in in 
the condition of spores, or that pass through during an at- 
tack of gastric indigestion, when the acid is defective. For 
the same reason these bacteria require, for their survival 
out of the body, a medium (soil, fermenting heap) that is 
naturally alkaline by reason of the presence of lime, or by 
the artificial production of ammonia, which is so constant a 
product of fermentative decomposition. The saturation of 
the fermenting mass, therefore, with a powerful acid, not 
only checks the alkaline fermentation but also usually disin- 
fects the mass if infectious germs are present. 

Light, too, has a marked influence on bacteria growth, 
the disease-producing forms being especially those that 
thrive in darkness, while their virulence is more or less im- 
paired by exposure to sunlight. Hence the great value of 
light as well as of oxygen as a means of purification and dis- 
infection. 

Electricity, too, has a potent influence on their develop- 
ment, though it seems to act differently according to the par- 
ticular kind of germ and the strength of the electric current. 
Thus everyone knows the effect of a thunder-storm in rap- 
idly souring milk, a* process which is directly caused by the 
Bacillus lactis ; and the rapid decay of vegetables, and even 



44 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

of eggs, the result of the action of various bacteria, is equally 
familiar. Yet Dubois shows that the effect of a strong 
electric current is fatal to the Micrococcus prodigiosus. 

Heat is another important agency. Each bacterium has 
a given range of temperature within which its propagation 
is most active. All excepting those that have produced 
spores are destroyed by exposure to a high temperature — 
from that of boiling water down. Different spores will re- 
sist boiling for different periods. 

Cold arrests the growth of bacteria, but does not neces- 
sarily kill tliem, many reviving after prolonged freezing. 
Plague-generating bacteria that are destroyed by cold pro- 
duce those plagues which, like cholera, Texas cattle fever, and 
yellow fever, do not survive the winter in northern latitudes. 

The possibility of the action of bacteria for evil may be 
deduced from their power of rapid increase in suitable sur- 
roundings. They multiply their numbers by fission — one 
enlarging and dividing into two, and thus some of them 
can, under favorable conditions, double their numbers every 
hour. A single bacterium increasing at this rate would, in 
twenty-four hours, have produced 16,777,216. These, again, 
multiplying at the same rate would, at the end of twenty- 
four hours more, amount to 282,584,976,710,656. A single 
Bacterium termo (of putrefaction), one-thousandth of a 
millimeter in diameter and a five-hundredth of a millimeter 
in length, would produce in forty-eight hours a sufficient 
progeny to nearly fill a half-pint measure. The increase 
attained in five days at the same rate is so enormous that 
to state it would only arouse incredulity. The curious can 
calculate it for himself, doubling the product every hour. 

Fortunately for the world the bacteria cannot find such 
opportunities for unrestricted increase, but they perish in 
unlimited numbers by starvation, by the action of light, 
heat, cold, oxygen, electricity, chemical poisons, by the ac- 
tion of other living organisms, and even by preying on each 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 45 

other, so that their numbers are generally kept within benef- 
icent bounds. In the case, however, of those that can live 
in animal and vegetable bodies, the limit is manifestly set 
by the number of such susceptible bodies furnished ready 
to be attacked. Hence the danger of a plague is always 
proportionate to the number of live-stock susceptible to it, 
and with continual intercourse between these there can be 
no limit to the rapid progress, the extent, and the deadly 
effects of the infection. 

LIST OF DISEASE-PRODUCING BACTERIA. 

The following is a partial list of the bacteria found in 
diseased states in animals : 

Micrococcus. Hound or Ovoid Bacteria. 
Micrococcus Vaccinae in Cow-pox and Horse-pox. 

" Variolse Ovinse in Sheep-pox. 

'•' Urese in Ammoniacal Urine (Cystitis). 

" of Erysipelas. 

" " Ulcerative Endocarditis. 

" " Croupous Pneumonia in Horse (Pneumo- 

coccus). 

" " Lung-plague in Cattle. 

" " Suppuration. 

" " Septic Wounds. 

" " Gangrenous Wounds. 

" " Fowl Cholera. 

" " Diphtheria. 

Diplococcus of Swine Plague. 
Sarcina Yentriculi of Stomach. 
" Urinse of Bladder. 

Bacterium. Short Rods. 
Bacterium Syncyanum (Cyanogens) in Blue Milk. 

" Synzanthinum (Zanthogens) in Yellow Milk. 
" (Eruginosum in Red Milk. 



46 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

Leptothrix. Filaments of Connected very Small Cells. 
Leptothrix Buccalis of Mouth and Carious Teeth. 

" Vaginae of Generative Organs in Enzootic 

Abortion in Cattle. 

Bacillus. Straight or Bent Filaments. 
Bacillus Anthracis in Anthrax. 

" of Malignant (Edema in Horse. 

" " Glanders. 

" " Tuberculosis. 

" " Septicaemia. 

" " Swine Plague. 

" " Carious Teeth. 

" " Leprosy. 

Vibrio. Linear, Wavy, Flexible Filament. 
Vibrio of Emphysematous Anthrax (Black quarter). 
" " Cholera (Comma Bacillus, Koch). 

Spirillum. Spiral, Rigid Filament. 
Spirillum of Relapsing Fever of Horse (" Surrse "). 
" " Milk-sickness. 

" " Gums and Teeth (Spirochete Cohni). 

BENDERING ANIMALS INSUSCEPTIBLE TO A PLAGUE. 

So much has been done of late in the direction of pro- 
tecting the individual animal against a contagious disease 
by reducing its susceptibility thereunto, that it seems needful 
to furnish a short general statement of the various processes 
adopted to secure this, and their explanation. 

Direct Cause of Acquired Immunity. It has long been 
well known that for a certain class of contagious diseases a 
first attack protects its victim for many years, or even for 
a lifetime, against a second. This knowledge was availed 
of in inoculating exposed animals with virulent matter from 
a mild case of a dangerous disease (small-pox, sheep-pox), 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 47 

and thus inducing a disease which, in the great majority of 
cases, was slight and comparatively harmless. In the same 
way children have been voluntarily exposed to the infection 
of measles or scarlet fever when that particular disease was 
prevailing in an unusually mild form, and by passing through 
such mild form of the malady have been empowered to resist 
the infection when at a later date the disease had assumed 
a malignant and fatal type. 

Of late years facts have accumulated which tend to 
throw light on the real cause of such acquired immunity. 
To comprehend these it is necessary to state one or two 
fundamental truths. 

1. A contagious disease is maintained and propagated in 
an animal body, and from one animal to another, by the 
multiplication and transference of a living organism, having 
the property possessed by all living bodies of increase by 
natural generation, of assimilation of food, and of the ex- 
cretion of waste material. In a certain number of conta- 
gious diseases these have been shown to be infinitesimal 
cellular organisms (bacteria) allied to the ferments which 
produce alcohol, vinegar, the carbonic acid which raises 
bread, and the offensive liquids and gases of putrefaction. 
It is not necessary to claim that all contagious diseases are 
caused by bacterial ferments ; it is enough for our present 
purpose to assume that every contagious disease is due to 
the presence of a distinct microscopic living particle which 
feeds, excretes, and increases by generation as do ferments. 
The only other alternative, that it is due to a chemical 
agent which acts injuriously on the tissues of the body, dis- 
proves itself ; for every chemical agent expends its power in 
exercising such chemical action, and can by no means re- 
cruit its substance nor strength, but will act with greater or 
less effect according to the amount originally applied, and 
must be more speedily exhausted in exact ratio with the bulk 
or the number of the animals attacked ; whereas the disease- 



48 The Farmer 's Veterinary Adviser. 

germ (contagium) constantly increases in quantity and force 
with the increasing number of the susceptible victims upon 
which it is allowed to operate. 

2. Each particular kind of disease-germ lias but a limited 
sway over the animal creation, one or more genera proving 
completely insusceptible to it. Thus measles, scarlatina, and 
mumps are peculiar to man, lung-plague to the ox, Rinder- 
pest to ruminants, and strangles to solipeds. Other races 
of animals have by nature a stronger resistance to each par- 
ticular disease than the susceptible races acquire even by a 
first attack. 

3. This antagonism or power of resistance to a particular 
disease is especially inherent in the living animal and in 
different instances solutions or gelatinous compounds made 
from the bodies of insusceptible animals have been found 
to support the life and multiplication of disease-germs that 
were entirely harmless to the living animal. 

4. In the life of bacterial ferments (and disease-germs) 
there are two main considerations bearing on the question 
of the causation of disease : a y The ferment abstracts from 
the liquid element in which it lives the food elements 
necessary for its nutrition and growth ; and, b, the ferment 
throws out of its system into the liquid in which it lives 
the waste products of its own bodily life. Thus the beer- 
yeast consumes the sugar in the malt, and after using it for 
its own nourishment, throws out into the liquid carbonic 
acid and alcohol. 

So it is with the disease-generating bacteria. They draw 
upon the animal fluids for their food materials, thus ab- 
stracting from the system materials that may be essential to 
health, and they pour back into the animal fluids products 
that may be injurious to health. 

5. The disease-producing bacteria or other germs are liable 
to be arrested in the capillary blood-vessels, the lymphatic 
radical net-works of the different tissues and the lymphatic 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 49 

glands, to block these passages to a greater or less extent, 
and to derange healthy processes by obstructing the flow of 
blood or lymph or by irritating the parts and producing 
local inflammation. 

These may serve as principles in the light of which to 
consider the various theories of the mode of operation by 
which a first attack gives immunity from a second. Four 
hypotheses have been advanced to account for this immunity, 
which may be considered seriatim. 

a. The Exhaustion Theory. This assumes that in the 
susceptible animal the disease germ finds its appropriate 
food, which has been accumulating from birth, that it uses 
up this and is starved to death when this supply has be- 
come exhausted. The theory holds that the presence of 
the living germ in the system causes the fever, that the 
fever subsides when the germ dies, and that the disease 
cannot again recur in the same animal because all the 
food of the disease-germ which it contained has been used 
up. This view was naturally adopted by Pasteur, whose 
chemical experience with beer and wine had accustomed 
him to gauge the growth of the yeast by the amount of 
sugar in the malt or grape-juice. It is, however, utterly 
untenable as applied to the growth of a disease-germ in 
an animal body. In the animal system the disease-germ 
lives in a medium which is constantly changing, new food 
material is taken in several times a day, this new food 
is being continually built up into living tissues, and from 
the living tissues so constructed waste materials are being 
constantly abstracted and carried out of the body. The new- 
born animal readily contracts a contagious disease, though 
the whole period of its pre-existence from its inception in 
the ovum does not exceed one month to one year in the dif- 
ferent domestic animals ; yet, after a first attack, it may live 
for many jears exposed at frequent intervals to the same 
contagion, and never again submit to its malign influence. 
4 



50 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

Is it conceivable that in these many years of active life and 
nutrition this same animal system has been unable to elab- 
orate even a fraction of that particular food which was so 
abundantly produced in the first short year or months of 
its existence ? But this is not all. If the muscles or other 
tissues of this animal, rendered insusceptible by a first attack 
of a given disease, are boiled and made into a soup, it sup- 
ports the life of the specific germ of that disease, and even 
secures its rapid increase. It follows that there is no lack 
of food in the living body for this germ which finds such a 
fertile field in the soup made from its elements. 

b. The Antidote Theory. This supposes that some 
chemical substance is produced during the progress of the 
disease which is laid up in the living tissues of the animal 
body, and acts as a direct poison to the germ. This, 
adopted by Ivlebs and Klein, has, like the first-named 
hypothesis, a basis in the action of ferments in simple 
chemical solutions out of the animal bod}\ Bread that 
has risen once or twice under the action of yeast is raised 
less effectually on each successive occasion, though more 
flour is added every time. So with many other ferments ; 
their growth is rendered less active in proportion to the 
accumulation of their own chemical products in the liquid 
in which they are. But the germ is not killed by the ac- 
cumulation of its chemical products ; it remains alive and 
active so long as it finds food in its surroundings. Were it 
otherwise, it is not conceivable that these chemical products 
should remain in the tissues for years in a soluble condition, 
in which alone they would be taken in by the germ, so as 
to poison it. If entirely insoluble they might remain in 
the tissues indefinitely, like the particles of charcoal in the 
tattooed skin, but they could not affect the composition of 
the animal fluids nor hinder the growth of any germs 
in these liquids. If, on the contrary, they were soluble in 
these animal fluids, they would, like other dissolved pro- 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 51 

ducts, be carried to the kidneys, skin, bowels, etc., and 
thrown out of the system in a few days or weeks, so that 
the system would be no longer protected by them against 
a new attack. But aside from this, as seen under our last 
heading, a soup made of the tissues of an animal which has 
been protected by a first attack of a given disease will 
readily support the life, growth, and reproduction of the 
germ which is the cause of that disease. This is conclusive ; 
for the infusion of the tissues will contain the chemical pro- 
ducts which were the alleged cause of the destruction of 
the germ. 

c. The Condensation and Filtration Theory. Tous- 
saint found that during an attack of anthrax the lymphatic 
glands were congested and swollen, and that on the sub- 
sidence of the disorder the exuded matter which caused 
the swelling, developing into fibrous tissue, contracted upon 
the lymphatic ducts in such glands, compressing them and 
lessening their calibre, so that he supposed they no longer 
admitted the passage of the germs (bacteria) of the disease. 
This view was thought to be supported by the absence of 
bacteria in the foetus in many instances where the dam had 
perished from the disease, the filtration having presumably 
been effected by the placenta. But, as I have shown else- 
where, the foetus partakes of the nature of carnivorous ani- 
mals which are insusceptible to many germs producing disease 
in the herbivora. The filtration theory becomes untenable 
when we consider that the lymph-corpuscles, which are in- 
comparably larger than any lethal bacteria, continue to find 
their way through the constricted tubes of the glands, so 
that there can be no insuperable obstacle to the passage of 
the germs as well. Again, this condensation of the glands 
would not prevent the development of a local anthrax 6ore 
in the skin in the seat of inoculation, yet a first attack usu- 
ally prevents the subsequent formation of the local disease 
as well as of the general infection. The resistance to the 



52 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

*- 

germ is inherent in every tissue of the body, and not merely 
in those parts that must be reached through an indurated 
gland. Finally, this condensation of the gland, caused by 
the infection of one disease, gives no protection against that 
of a second. If the protection were due to a mere mechani- 
cal obstruction, then the immunity acquired by an attack of 
one disease would extend to all others having germs of 
equal size ; whereas, with rare exceptions (cow-pox and small- 
pox), no one contagious disease is vicarious of another. 

(D) The Vital Resistance Theoey. This hypothesis 
assumes that the living cells and nuclei of the blood and tis- 
sues of the body, having once been subjected to the attack 
of a specific disease-germ, acquire a power of tolerance or 
resistance of that particular germ or its products which pre- 
vents them from readily succumbing a second time to its 
evil influence. 

The habit of tolerating an injurious agency without harm 
is a matter of common experience. Exposure to the sun 
after long seclusion in-doors blisters the face and hands, but 
after continued exposure and tanning, it has no such effect. 
Rowing, hoeing, or chopping will at first blister the hands, 
but after some experience it only hardens and strengthens 
them. The boy's first cigar or pipe of tobacco sickens him, 
while the practised smoker can consume the poison from 
morning; to night. So with the drinker, the opium-eater, 
the victim of the chloral-habit, and the arsenic-eater. Each 
of these comes to take with impunity that which would have 
proved fatal in his early experience. 

So it is with the morbid products of the life of a disease- 
germ. Coming for the first time in contact with the living 
cells and nuclei of the body, they prove more or less potent 
poisons, whereas later these can bear their presence with 
comparative impunity. But in both cases alike the power 
of resistance is limited. It is quite possible by an overdose 
to kill the smoker, the drinker, the opium-eater, the chloral- 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 53 

guzzler, or the arsenic-eater. Equally possible is it, by an 
excessive dose of a specific disease-poison, to lay the best 
protected system under the fatal influence of that disease. 
There is no such thing as conferring absolute immunity. 
Hence the occasional occurrence of a second attack of small- 
pox, or other plague, on occasions when the disease has be- 
come unusually virulent, or acts on a specially depressed 
system. 

But this cannot be the whole measure of the antagonism. 
"Were it to rest here the multiplication of the disease-germ 
might be as great as before, the system might become satu- 
rated with these germs, and trouble would inevitably come 
from the exhaustion of the blood and animal fluids of their 
oxygen, the blocking of capillaries, etc. The germs and their 
products would tend to increase till the vital resistance was 
overcome, and a fatal result might ensue. The important 
feature of the resistance is that it prevents the survival and 
increase of the germs introduced into the body. In the pro- 
tected animal system, therefore, there is not simply a vital 
insusceptibility of the cells and nuclei to the action of the 
chemical products of disease, but there is in addition an 
active antagonism between the living animal cell and the 
living disease-germ. There is a certain similarity between 
the bacterial ferment and the plastic animal cell, in that both 
are engaged in taking in and using up organic matter for 
their own nourishment, or, in the case of the animal cell, for 
the building up of tissue. Each finds in the other organic 
matter by the devouring of which it can support its own 
life. Each would feed upon the other but for the vital re- 
sistance offered by its antagonist. If one is killed, or has its 
vitality depressed as compared with the other, the latter will 
destroy and devour it. If, then, the nuclei of the tissues 
have had their vitality lowered by the action for the first 
time of the poisonous chemical products of the disease-germ, 
they meet the attacks of that germ at a disadvantage, for a 



54 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

time the germ triumphs in the struggle for existence, and a 
grave or mortal disease is the consequence. When, how- 
ever, the animal cells and nuclei are inured to the action of 
this disease-poison by a former attack, they have acquired 
an insusceptibility to it, and in spite of it retain all their 
native vitality and vigor, so that the disease-germs which 
are introduced fall easy victims to the devouring animal 
cells. 

This position is further sustained by the fact that many 
virulent liquids, introduced in small amount into the blood, 
quickly perish, whereas if introduced into the tissues they 
survive, multiply, and generate disease. In the blood, the 
attacking party of disease-germs is confronted in rapid 
succession by the endless myriads of actively moving blood- 
globules, and in the resultant struggle the countless num- 
bers of strong animal cells triumph, and the invading dis- 
ease-germs are devoured. When the disease-germ is planted 
in the tissues the case is reversed. Here the animal cells 
(nuclei) are immovably fixed in the tissues which they serve 
to build up, so that the whole force of the invading germs 
is thrown upon a few. The poisonous chemical products 
(ptomaines) lower their vitality, so that they can no longer 
successfully resist the morbid germs, and the latter increase 
rapidly, pour their depressing products onward through the 
lymphatic vessels into the blood and system at large, and 
finally debilitate the whole, so that the germ finds no effec- 
tive resistance at any point, not even in the blood itself. 
Thus the disease, which is at first local, becomes general, be- 
cause the animal cells at the point where the virus was im- 
planted, had not the power to resist the depressing influence 
of the germ products, and the germ was allowed to increase 
in numbers and force. 

Another consideration sustains this theory. The protec- 
tion conferred upon a system by a first attack of a disease- 
germ is to be trusted even where the diseased processes 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 55 

have been strictly local. Thus a vaccination on the arm 
protects the whole system against a second occurrence of the 
disease. A single malignant pustule on the hand fortifies 
the whole body against anthrax. A swelling no larger 
than a peach, caused by the insertion of lung-plague virus 
on the tip of the tail, protects the lungs from attack as if 
the first manifestation of the disease had been in the lungs 
themselves. This is the more remarkable, that the intro- 
duction of lung-plague virus into the blood causes no local 
disease in the lungs nor elsewhere. The germs introduced 
into the tail caused disease in the tail, but none in the 
lungs, and as the germs could only reach the lungs by pass- 
ing through the blood, and as the blood is destructive to 
these germs, it follows that the germs could never have 
reached the lungs, and that the vital resistance conferred 
upon the lungs by this inoculation in the tail must have 
been secured by contact with the chemical products of the 
growth of the germ, which were thrown into the blood and 
carried to the lungs and the whole body continuously 
through the whole progress of the disease. 

Still another fact favors this view. With some disease- 
germs (chicken-cholera), dilution of the virus till you can 
guarantee that no more than one or two germs are intro- 
duced into the sore by inoculation secures a local and non- 
fatal in place of a general and lethal disease. The small 
number of germs introduced have no advantage in point of 
force over the living nuclei with which they are brought in 
contact in the tissues, and in the resulting struggle the tissue 
elements triumph and the germs are destroyed. Yet here 
again the general system is protected against a subsequent 
attack of the disease, the inoculated germs having diffused 
enough of their chemical products (ptomaines) through the 
body to secure this before the} 7 died. 

This hypothesis of acquired vital resistance and antago- 
nism meets the case at every point, and of the four theories 



56 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

named is the only one that makes full explanation of the 
phenomena. 

We can now proceed to intelligently consider the different 
modes of seeking immunity from contagious diseases. 

I. IMMUNITY BY GOOD HYGIENE. 

We have seen above that the animal system is conquered 
by any contagious disease in ratio with the debility of the 
living animal cells and their feeble power of resistance. 
The system, therefore, in which these cells are weak from 
living in impure air, damp buildings, darkness, on poor or 
deficient food, on foul water, from overwork, from old- 
standing or debilitating disease, from excessive drains on 
the vitality, as heavy milking, etc., is more ready to suc- 
cumb to the attack of a disease-germ than is one in the 
strength of the most vigorous health. So it is with the 
individual that has descended from weak or debilitated 
ancestors, or from such as were too young and imperfectly 
developed, or too old and worn out. Hence it is that all 
that contributes to robust health favors the resistance to 
contagious disease. But this resistance is extremely limited 
in its scope. We constantly see the strongest and healthiest 
men and animals fall under the blight of a plague, while 
their weak and debilitated compeers that have already 
passed through this affection successfully resist. In many 
cases, too, the unusual vigor of an animal system, while 
failing to completely throw off the disease-germ, yet modi- 
fies the affection so that it passes in a milder form. This 
may save the individual, but it does not hinder the multi- 
plication of the germs and the propagation of the plague. 
The robust system, like a barren field, produces a stunted 
crop of disease-germs, a crop, however, which is amply suf- 
ficient to keep the contagion constantly progressing from 
animal to animal, and from herd to herd. 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 57 



II. IMMUNITY BY TONICS AND ANTIFERMENTS. 

The use of tonics is based on their tendency to produce 
a more vigorous health. Like good hygiene, therefore, 
they will sometimes assist in warding off infection, or in 
rendering the resulting attack more mild. A long course 
of sulphate of iron will do much to fortify against lung- 
plague, and is not without influence even on rinderpest ; 
but a certain number of victims suffer after all, and too 
often the plague continues to extend. 

The free use of sulphites, bisulphites, and hyposulphites 
was long ago shown by Polli to counteract the dangers of 
inoculated septicaemia, and has undoubtedly the effect of 
retarding the growth of certain disease-germs within the 
animal body, but at best they but mitigate the disease and 
do not prevent the progress of the infection to other 
animals. 

III. IMMUNITY BY PASSING THROUGH THE PLAGUE BY 

EXPOSURE. 

In a country where a deadly animal plagne is generally 
prevalent, a measure of security is sometimes secured by 
passing the young and comparatively valueless through the 
disease. Those that die are but a trifling loss, while the 
survivors resist this plague for their whole life-time. This 
has been especially adopted in lung plague. 

IV. IMMUNITY BY INOCULATION FROM A MILD TYPE OF THE 

PLAGUE. 

Before the days of Jenner this was employed for small- 
pox, and to the present time it is largely resorted to for 
sheep-pox. Sheep in good health, inoculated from a mild 
case of the disease, usually have the pox in a mild form ; 
nearly all recover, and the flock is thereby preserved. 



58 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



V. IMMUNITY BY INOCULATION FROM A CLOSELY RELATED 

DISEASE. 

This was inaugurated by Jenner, who observed that the 
Gloucestershire milkers who contracted cow-pox never suf- 
fered from small-pox, and to-day his beneficent method is 
followed all over the civilized world. No two other dis- 
eases have been yet shown to be vicarious of each other. 

VI. IMMUNITY BY INOCULATION WITH A MINIMUM AMOUNT 

OF VIRUS. 

This consists in diluting the virus in water or saline solu- 
tion of the density of the blood, until the drop or drops in- 
oculated contain but one, or at most two germs (bacteria). 
Dr. Salmon has employed this extensively in chicken-cholera 
producing a local slough only, followed by recovery and 
subsequent immunity from the disease. 

VII. LIMITATION OF LOCAL DISEASE BY ANTISEPTICS AND 

CAUSTICS. 

Jenner recognized that an excessive inflammation in the 
seat of vaccination could be cut short by the caustic appli- 
cation of the sulphate of zinc or nitrate of silver. In the 
light of to-day we can recognize in these, antiseptics which 
destroyed the living germs in the seat of inoculation and 
prevented their further increase. Similarly, in all those af- 
fections that are for a time limited to the seat of superficial 
infection, the general infection may be prevented by the 
application of caustics or antiseptics to the affected part. 
This applies to local anthrax, septic poisoning, inoculated 
lung plague, and even canine madness, and in proportion to 
the chemical products thrown off into the system before the 
local disease was arrested will be the measure of protection 
from a future attack. 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 59 



VIII. IMMUNITY BY INOCULATION IN AN UNIMPORTANT 

ORGAN. 

This lias been especially resorted to in lung plague after 
the mode of Willems, of Hasselt, Belgium. The liquid 
exudate from the diseased lung, recently attacked and still 
gorged with an uncoagulated liquid, is inserted into the tail 
near the tip. In fifteen days, on an average, it becomes in- 
flamed, swollen, and it may even slough, but after recovery 
the system is fortified against the disease. Inoculated else- 
where in the body where there is an abundant connective 
tissue beneath the skin it is usually fatal, but in the tail, with 
its dense texture and deficiency of lymphatic tissue, it rarely 
extends to dangerous dimensions. 

IX. IMMUNITY BY INOCULATON IN THE VEINS. 

In 1879 Burdon-Sanderson inoculated cattle with the lung- 
plague virus by injecting the same into the veins, without 
any contact with the adjacent tissues. The inoculated cattle 
showed no special disorder, but when afterward inoculated 
in the tissues with fresh virus they proved to be entirely in- 
susceptible of it. Later, Gal tier adopted the same measure 
with the saliva of canine madness, injecting it into the veins 
of rabbits and sheep with no direct evil result, and the sub- 
jects afterward resisted the infection by inoculation in the 
tissues. Lussano long before, and Pasteur later, made in- 
travenous injections in dogs, but with the result of inducing 
rabies. The method, then, must have a very limited appli- 
cation, being restricted to such disease-germs as do not sur- 
vive in the blood. It is utterly inapplicable to diseases in 
which the blood is habitually infecting, such as syphilis, 
glanders, tuberculosis, rabies in dogs, anthrax, etc. 



60 The Fa?"nier > s Veterinary Adviser. 



X. IMMUNITY BY INOCULATION WITH GERMS MODIFIED BY 

ANOTHER GENUS OF ANIMAL. 

In 1878 Burdon-Sanderson and Duguid inoculated anthrax 
on guinea-pigs for several generations of the poison, and 
from the guinea-pigs inoculated several cattle, all of which 
passed through a mild form of the disease and without ex- 
ception recovered in five days. The same cattle, afterward 
inoculated with very virulent anthrax fluids, again sickened, 
but in no case with a fatal result. These experiments were 
repeated and confirmed by Greenfield a year later. 

In 1879 I inoculated swine-plague matter on a lamb and 
a rat and conveyed the infection from these animals back to 
pigs, the latter taking the disease in a mild form, and show- 
ing the characteristic lesions on post-mortem examination 
after the recovery had been well advanced. As a first at- 
tack protects against a second, we assume that these pigs had 
been rendered insusceptible. 

In 1884 Pasteur inoculated the virus of canine madness 
on monkeys, and inoculated it from the apes back on rabbits 
and dogs, producing in the latter a non-fatal disease which 
protected the system against a second attack. 

This method is doubtless capable of very great extension 
in other plagues. 

XI. IMMUNITY BY INOCULATION WITH GERMS GROWN IN DIF- 
FERENT LIQUIDS OR SOLTDS. 

It is well established that ferments produce different pro- 
ducts and assume varied forms as grown in different liquids. 
So with disease-germs. In 1878 I found that the virus of 
swine-plague preserved in wheat-bran was constantly fatal, 
and in 1880 that similar virus cultivated in previously steril- 
ized milk, egg albumen, and urine, respectively, produced 
only mild attacks, which protected against the usual infec- 
tion. 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 61 



XII. —IMMUNITY BY INOCULATION WITH VIRUS GROWN IN FREE 
CONTACT WITH AIR. 

The same principle operates in this as in the last method, 
the bacterium or other germ living in free contact with air 
acquires the habit of using more oxygen than it can secure 
in the animal tissues, and when transferred to these it grows 
in a sickly manner and is easily thrown off by the living 
animal tissues. This is largely operative in slowly disin- 
fecting buildings freely open to the air, infected yards, parks, 
and other open places, while it determines that virulent 
matters closely shut up in sewers, manure-heaps, cess-pools, 
close areas under floors, compact, water-logged, or filth-satu- 
rated soils, or indeed wherever the air cannot freely reach it, 
retain their infecting qualities for a much longer time, and 
at times, as in cholera, yellow fever, and typhoid, have 
them materially enhanced in potency. In my experiments 
with swine-plague and septic matters I invariably found 
that material the most deadly which had been grown in 
closed flasks with a very limited supply of air, while that 
which was grown in thin layers and with free access to air 
steadily lost in potency, and finally produced a disease so 
mild that it could be resorted to as a means of preventing 
losses in herds. 

XIII. — IMMUNITY BY INOCULATION WITH VIRUS WHICH HAS 
BEEN EXPOSED TO COMPRESSED OXYGEN. 

This is based on the same principle with the last, only in 
place of a lengthened exposure to the oxygen in the air 
there is a temporary exposure to pure oxygen under extra 
pressure. Chauveau has especially labored in this field, and 
found that, by carefully graduating the pressure and the pe- 
riod of exposure, he could secure such debility or lessened 
potency in the germs as would determine a mild and non- 



(32 The Farmers Veterinary Adviser. 

fatal disease, which would prove vicarious of the more severe 
form. 

One drawback to this method is that, if applied to a virus 
which has been some time removed from the system and has 
produced spores, the latter still retain their potency. 

XIV. IMMUNITY BY INOCULATION WITH VIRUS WEAKENED BY 

BESTING INACTIVE (STARVED) IN FREE CONTACT WITH AIB. 

This is the far-famed method of the brilliant Pasteur. 
He began his work on the virus of chicken-cholera, setting 
aside his cultures of the virus in vessels unfurnished with 
any more food for their nourishment and freely exposed to 
the air. After a sufficiently long exposure he found that 
the virus had lost somewhat of its deadly character, and 
after a three months' rest it could be inoculated on healthy 
fowls without a fatal result, and proved protective against 
another attack of the disease. Later, with anthrax virus 
cultivated in chicken-soup at 41° C, so that it would not pro- 
duce the unimpressible spore, he produced by delay a debil- 
ilated virus which could be safely inoculated on healthy 
sheep and cattle, and would protect them from a second at- 
tack. Later still the method has been successfully applied 
to canine madness and other diseases. The one great draw- 
back to the method is the fact that, though the individual is 
preserved, yet the virus is multiplied in its system and scat- 
tered in the surroundings, ready to resume its virulence at 
any time under favorable circumstances. Pasteur himself 
has secured this reversion to the deadly type by inoculating 
the weakened virus of fowl-cholera on the chick, and suc- 
cessively on older and older animals. It is easy to conceive 
how a diffusion of germs, by a general inoculation with the 
weakened virus, may become the means of starting many 
new centres of deadly infection. 

Pasteur's system is therefore not one that can be adopted 



Contagious and Ejjisootic Diseases. 63 

with any confidence for the extinction of an animal plague ; 
the highest good that can be expected from it is the protec- 
tion of the system of the particular animal inoculated, against 
an ordinary attack of the disease. The living germs are, 
however, propagated in the system of the animal operated 
on, and unless the animal and all its products are carefully 
secluded for a time sufficient to allow of the escape of the 
germs from the system, and unless such escaped germs are 
suitably disinfected, each protected animal may start a new 
focus of infection and plague. In connection with this it 
is not a little suggestive that, since the general adoption 
of the Pasteurian method for hydrophobia in France, the 
disease has become unusually prevalent in that and neigh- 
boring countries, and though nearly all the subjects inocu- 
lated by M. Pasteur have escaped the disease, the num- 
ber of people dying from hydrophobia in a given time has 
in no way decreased, even in Prance (Colin). 

The truth is that the Pasteurian inoculation should be 
surrounded by greater safeguards than even its author has 
yet appreciated the need of. While the great majority of 
those bitten by rabid animals may, by its adoption, be pro- 
tected against rabies, they cannot safely be set at large im- 
mediately after, as practised by Pasteur, but should be quar- 
antined until time shall have assured us of the destruction of 
the potent virus introduced into their system, and should, with 
all their belongings, be disinfected before final liberation. 
In the case of herds, too, the same precaution is imperative, 
and on no account should animals kept on uninfected lands 
be inoculated with these less potent germs as a preventive 
against the more potent germs to which they are to be sub- 
sequently exposed in an infected pasturage. Such a course 
would only be the sowing of a previously wholesome soil 
with a deadly seed which would be preserved and intensi- 
fied in any portion of that soil favorable to its maintenance 
and increase. The extensive adoption of Pasteur's method 



(34 The Farmer's Yeterinary Adviser. 

of protection against anthrax has undoubtedly been the 
means of planting that deadly disease on many soils hitherto 
wholesome and safe, and this evil cannot fail to be extended 
wider and wider, so long as the method is pursued in the 
present indiscriminate manner. 

For animals pastured on fields that are already infected, 
Pasteur's protective inoculation against that infection may 
be safely allowed, but for those on fields as yet uninfected, 
but of a nature favorable to the preservation of that poison 
when planted, such inoculation must be unequivocally con- 
demned. In such a case the animals should be housed for 
inoculation, or confined on a porous soil which will not pre- 
serve the germs, and should only be set free when all dan- 
ger, from living germs within their bodies, has passed, and 
after a perfect disinfection. 

XV. IMMUNITY BY INOCULATION WITH STERILIZED PRODUCTS 

OF A CONTAGIOUS DISEASE. 

As we have already seen, in the development of bacte- 
ridia, whether in or out of the animal body, there are two 
distinct bodies, living and dead, the multiplication of the 
living germ and the increase of its chemical products. Thus 
the beer-yeast (saccharomyces cerevisise), growing in a sweet 
organic fluid, like malt, multiplies its own numbers enor- 
mously, but it also produces an amount of carbon dioxide 
and alcohol proportionate to the amount of sugar origi- 
nally present in the liquid. So the disease-germ, operating 
in the animal body, not only increases its numbers but 
elaborates a variety of chemical products of which a solu- 
ble digestive ferment and a poisonous organic alkaloid 
(ptomaine) are especially important as attacking the integ- 
rity and life of the tissues. Apart from these chemical poi- 
sons the living germ probably could not destroy the vital- 
ity of the blood-globules and tissue-cells (nuclei). It is their 
place to rob the living tissues of their vital power of resist- 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. (55 

ance, and to digest and dissolve them in preparation for 
their consumption by the ravenous bacteridia. In their 
turn the well-nourished bacteridia produce the ferment and 
poison in increasing amount, and thus the strength of the 
invading germs is increased relatively to the waning power 
of vital resistance in the body until the whole economy is 
fatally invaded and the victim perishes. 

The overwhelming action of these chemical products is 
seen in the sudden death which ensues when a large dose of 
virulent fluid is thrown into the body, no time being 
allowed for the development and increase of the living 
germs. On the contrary, when a small dose only is intro- 
duced, illness is delayed much longer until the germs have 
had time to multiply and produce their chemical products, 
and death, if it occurs at all, is at a much later date. Some 
germs, when thrown at once into the veins, produce no dis- 
ease at all, but are destroyed by the ferments of the vital 
fluid and the myriads of living blood-globules with which 
they are brought rapidly into contact, and over the whole 
body of which their chemical products can exercise no ap- 
preciable effect. Yet the virus of lung-plague or of black- 
quarter, deadly when introduced into the tissues but harm- 
less when thrown into the blood, have, nevertheless, in the 
latter case, the effect of conferring upon the entire system 
the power of subsequent resistance to the same poison, so 
that if later introduced into the tissues it rests innocuous. 
Again, in the animal that has passed through anon-recurring 
contagious disease without dying, a similar exposure to the 
same poison later is harmless. This cannot be due to a 
greater vigor of constitution, for the system, permanently 
weakened by a first attack of a plague, still fails to contract 
the same disease on exposure to even a more potent virus. 
It can only be that the system has learned by its previous 
experience to resist the organic poison which proved so 
hurtful to it before. 



66 The Farmers Veterinary Adviser. 

Acting on this suggestion, I, in 1880, inoculated two pigs 
with swine-plague liquids, after I had sterilized them by 
heat, and had the satisfaction of seeing developed but a 
slight and temporary fever only. Later I repeated the 
inoculation with sterilized liquids, and finally exposed the 
same animals to contact with pigs sick with swine-plague, 
and to repeated inoculations with virulent liquids which 
proved fatal to unprotected pigs, yet they successfully re- 
sisted all such exposures. 

Since that date I have availed myself of the same method 
for lung-plague in cattle, having first carried it out on ten 
experimental cases in 1881, which subsequently successfully 
resisted all my inoculations with fresh virus that proved 
fatal to unprotected animals used as test cases, and were 
finally sent, to the number of six, into infected premises in 
Brooklyn, ~N. Y., and Baltimore County, Md., but came 
through all without showing a sign of illness. Since that 
time I have successfully inoculated with sterilized lung-plague 
virus a considerable number of cattle that had been exposed 
to the contagion, or were to be, with, in the main, thoroughly 
satisfactory results. In two cases only were the results 
unsatisfactory, in the first, where the inoculating matter had 
been taken from a lung which did not show a sufficiently 
active development of the lung-plague lesions, and in the 
second, where no thermometer could be had marking over 
120° F., so that the sterilization remained incomplete and 
living germs were inoculated. 

Similarly Toussaint inoculated against anthrax in 1880 : 
I tested it on two herds, in July, 1884, and in 1885. 
In the first herd one heifer was left without inoculation as 
a test case, and in two days she died of anthrax, while the 
remainder of the herd, twelve in number, successfully 
resisted. The second, a large herd, escaped without a loss. 

In these cases the virulent liquids were heated to 160° F., 
and even higher, for an hour, and when time permitted this 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 67 

was repeated some time later. The inoculations were made 
at least twice, with intervals of one or several days. 

The results in the case of the swine have been criticised 
mainly, it would appear, because similar attempts on pigeons 
proved unsatisfactory, unless a greater number of inocula- 
tions with the sterilized virus were resorted to. Such criticism 
is, however, entirely unwarranted. 1st. Results obtained 
in one genus of animals will not necessarily be secured in 
another genus. 2d. No acquired immunity is absolute, not 
even though it may have been secured at the expense of a 
violent attack of the disease. In every case a large dose of 
powerfully virulent material will cause the best protected 
system to succumb. All such protection is only relative, 
and the fact that my inoculated pigs were unharmed by ex- 
posure to infection and by inoculations with fresh virulent 
liquids that proved fatal to other and unprotected pigs, 
sufficiently attests that I was working on the right principle, 
which even my critic and follower in the same line of exper- 
iment has found satisfactory in his own hands. He need 
not begrudge me the mead of priority in the work of estab- 
lishing this great principle as applicable to swine-plague. 

Superiority of Principle of Protection by Sterilised 
Virus. In comparing the method of protection by sterilized 
virus with the other inoculation methods, its great superiori- 
ty becomes at once manifest. With the single exception of 
Jenner's inoculation of a harmless disease (cow-pox) to protect 
against a deadly disease (small-pox), all other inoculation 
methods consist in the introduction into the animal system 
of the living germs of the disease which it is sought to pro- 
tect against. They are, one and all, but the production of a 
mild form of the disease in question. Fundamentally, they 
are but a return to the pre- Jennerian principle of inoculating 
from a mild case of small-pox, to protect against a deadly 
form of the same disease. They all result in the multipli- 
cation of these weakened germs by myriads in the animal 



68 The Farmer 's Veterinary Adviser. 

system, and too often in their distribution on surrounding 
objects, where they maybe preserved indefinitely to infect 
other susceptible animals. As in the case of all germs, there 
is the certainty of reversion to the original deadly type when- 
ever the medium in which they grow is favorable to such 
transition. Pasteur himself has shown this to be the case, 
when his weakened anthrax virus is passed through a suc- 
cession of young guinea-pigs ; and what is true of one germ 
is true of all in this respect. All have the power, within 
given limits, of adapting themselves to varying conditions 
of life. That the weakened virus (misnamed vaccine) has 
the power of reversion to the deadly type is assured to us 
by the fact that already a change of culture has robbed it of 
its deadly potency without destroying its life ; it has merely 
acquired a new habit of life, and the recurrence to the origi- 
nal habit is just as certain under a reversal of the condi- 
tions. Nothing, then, short of the absolute seclusion and 
disinfection of the inoculated animals, and their habitations 
and belongings, will render such inoculations reasonably 
safe. With the use of sterilized virus, on the other hand, 
all such possibilities of diffusion of the disease-germ are en- 
tirely done away with. 

1st. No living germ is introduced into the animal sys- 
tem. 

2d. No multiplication of germs can occur on nor in the 
animal. 

3d. The inoculated animal can convey no living germs to 
surrounding objects. 

4th. The material inoculated agrees with ordinary chem- 
ical poisons in affecting the system only in ratio with the 
dose. It has no power of self-multiplication, with conse- 
quent augmentation of its power for evil. 

5th. The dose can be graduated as easily and safely as 
can a dose of morphia. 

6th. By a succession of small doses we can keep up the 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 69 

effect on the system, without at any time endangering life 
by any sudden increase of germs, and their deadly products 
within the body. 

7th. The inoculated animal may be kept throughout 
among the uninoculated, or may be sent at once to any part 
of the country to mingle with other, stock without a shadow 
of risk to such stock. It carries no living germ. 

8th. Neither the inoculated animal nor its surroundings 
is in any need of seclusion during the process, as there is no 
living germ present which visitors may carry away with 
them. 

9th. Neither inoculated animals nor their surroundings 
are in any need of disinfection before contact with suscepti- 
ble animals can be allowed. 

Drawbacks to the Method of Protection by Sterilized 
Yirus. 1st. The main objection to the method is the neces- 
sity of keeping up a constant cultivation of the germs in 
their virulent form. This must be done either in living 
animal bodies or by means of culture-fluids and solids out 
of the body. In either case we must maintain a centre of 
infection to supply the inoculating material, and there is al- 
ways the risk that germs escaping from such centres will 
start new outbreaks of the plague. 

2d. Such cultures must be conducted with the greatest 
care, as, alike in and out of the animal body, there is always 
the liability that the germ may change its habit somewhat, 
lose its potency, and produce an ineffective virus only, lack- 
ing in either quantity or quality. Even if grown out of the 
animal body, therefore, a continuous chain of test cases, in 
inoculated animals, must be kept up to test the efficacy of 
the cultures. This makes the centres for culture extremely 
dangerous centres of infection. 

3d. Extreme care is requisite in the sterilizing of the virus, 
as the slightest failure here is fatal to the procedure, and 
unless the precautions are extreme there is the strongest 



70 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

probability of the conveyance of germs on instruments or on 
the person and clothes of the operator or his assistants. 

4th. Then, too, as the practice is often called for in herds, 
among which the plague in question has already appeared, 
there is always the probability of the presence of germs on 
the surface of the animal inoculated, and unless the skin is 
first thoroughly cleansed and disinfected (say with chloride 
of mercury, 1 to 1,000 water) such germs are liable to be car- 
ried in with the instrument and deposited in the tissues. 

5th. In all such infected herds, too, a given number of 
animals will usually have the germs already in their sys- 
tems, and in such cases the sterilized virus, weakening the 
vital resistance of the blood and tissues, will too often con- 
tribute to intensify the already implanted disease. 

6th. With a general application of the principle it would 
inevitably happen that blunders would be made by the 
owners and others as to the precise nature of the disease to 
be prevented, and thus the products of one plague would 
be inoculated to prevent the irruption of another, and in 
the consequent failure the whole system would receive un- 
merited discredit. To avoid this, and in the absence of the 
requisite skill for diagnosis, the virus should be obtained 
from one of the victims in the herd, and prepared with all 
due precaution on the spot. In such case a failure would be 
unlikely, unless the subject furnishing the virus showed only 
an imperfectly developed type of the malady, or unless two 
diverse maladies existed in the same herd at the same time. 

7th. Another obvious precaution is to take virus only 
from typical cases of the disease to be prevented, and not 
from those which show any defect in development (as the 
chemical products are then liable to be wanting in strength) 
nor from advanced nor complicated cases (in which there 
may be superadded germs of other poisons and other deadly 
products). Thus in the advanced stages of disease the 
propagation of septic germs is not at all uncommon. 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 71 

- Limitation of Protection by Sterilised Products. 
While it is evident that there is a large field as yet uncul- 
tivated in which the fruits of this method maj T be gathered, 
yet there are obvious limitations to its application, some of 
which may be shortly stated. 

1st. A certain number of animal plagues will recur in 
the same system at frequent intervals. Thus aphthous 
fever not unfrequently attacks the same herd twice in the 
course of a single year, and the same apparently holds 
with some forms of equine influenza. It would be folly, 
therefore, to expect any permanent protection from inocu- 
lating the chemical products of these diseases. 

2d. A certain number of infectious diseases cannot be 
said to have any limit set to their duration. Thus tuber- 
culosis and glanders may go on for a life-time, the inflamed 
and embryonic tissue produced under the influence of the 
poisonous products of the germ furnishing continual acces- 
sions of new food for the slowly developing germ, and thus 
determining a constant extension of the colonies of bacilli. 
It is absurd, therefore, to expect protection by the use of 
the chemical products in these cases. 

3d. It may turn out that the ptomaines of given dis- 
eases are volatile and would be dissipated by heat, so that 
the final sterilized product will be deficient in the essential 
element in which its preventive virtue resides. In the 
inorganic kingdom we have the alkali ammonia volatile at 
ordinary temperatures, and it would not be surprising if in 
the organic kingdom a certain number of alkaloids should 
also prove volatile. In such cases the product sterilized by 
heat would be useless. 

4th. It is not at all improbable that chemical or physical 
changes may be effected by heat in the ferment or alkaloid 
produced by a disease-germ, as egg albumen is coagulated. 
Here again the method would be at fault. 

5th. In other methods of sterilization similar difficulties 



72 T/is Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

would at times be met with. Thus the life of the germ 
may be destroyed by oxygen under a pressure of three 
atmospheres, but in too many cases it is to be feared such 
intensified oxygen would oxidize the chemical products, and 
thus rob them of all their virtue. 

In cases where these limitations are found to operate, 
there may perhaps still be devised, in the future, other 
methods of sterilization which will not affect the chemical 
condition nor virulent potency of the disease-products, and 
thus the grand principle of prevention by sterilized products 
may receive a much wider application than can be effected 
by the methods of sterilization by heat or compressed 
oxygen. 

Radical Extinction of Animal Plagues. The public 
appreciation of preventive medicine is still at a very low 
ebb. It has been aptly said, people will give " millions for 
cure, but not a cent for prevention." It is incomprehensible 
how, year after year, and generation after generation, we 
can see the human race dying off from preventable diseases, 
and yet with true fatalism accept it all as the inevitable. 
It is astounding to contemplate the thousands of tons of 
quack remedies^ so called, which mankind yearly swallow, 
for maladies chargeable only on their own ignorance or 
neglect of available means of prevention. Still more 
astounding is it to see the plagues of animals imported into 
a new country, and by the most criminal negligence allowed 
to acquire a general prevalence, when the prompt sacrifice 
of one animal, or one hundred, or one thousand, could at the 
different stages have put a final end to the contagion. Yet 
all radical measures for the extirpation of animal plagues 
are habitually treated with neglect or active opposition ; 
the advocate of such measures is told that " his duty is to 
cure, not kill," and his reasoning is scouted as the " logic 
of the pole-axe." And all this not by the common people 
alone, but by those whose position would entitle us to expect 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 73 

from them better things. The editors of powerful news- 
papers, who can surely never have given five minutes' 
sober and intelligent consideration to the question, join in 
this cry, and quite recently Mr. Clare Sewell Read, M.P., 
in an agricultural address, bewails that " veterinary science 
can only advise them to kill." Now in view of all that is 
set forth above, our readers must see that all this talk is but 
the fruit of ignorance and slander, and that for the plagues 
of animals we are to-day in a better position to offer pre- 
ventive measures than is the practitioner of human medi- 
cine for the pestilences of man. 

It is true that we cannot exercise omnipotence and extin- 
guish infection with a word, nor can we mail to any point 
a much desired, and very generally believed in, panacea, 
which will cure the victims of all contagia from ringworm 
to rinderpest. But we can in suitable cases procure such 
conditions of life and such power of resistance in the animal 
economy as will render the assaults of given plagues harm- 
less. 

As veterinarians, however, and as citizens, it is not for us 
to advocate especially those measures which would protect 
the individual animal or the individual herd at the cost of 
danger to the herds around them, when more radical, and, in 
the end, cheaper measures can be availed of to obviate all 
necessity for these partial and dangerous methods of pro- 
tection. Veterinarians have been freely slandered for an 
alleged desire to feed luxuriantly from the public treasury. 
The wonder is rather that more of the profession have not 
pandered to the public prejudice, and advocated and engi- 
neered public culture establishments from which the vari- 
ously modified virus could have been sent out everywhere 
at a handsome profit. Have our detractors ever thought 
of how many millions it would cost yearly to inoculate the 
hogs of the United States as a protection against swine- 
plague ? And of how many millions more it would cost to 



74 The Farmer' 1 s Veterinary Adviser. 

inoculate against each of the other animal plagues now exist- 
ing in the land ? The radical and thorough extinction of 
these plagues, which, to their credit be it said, the better 
class of our veterinarians have consistently advocated, has 
for its purpose the speedy removal from the land of all need 
for preventive measures apart from those aimed at the pre- 
vention of renewed importation of infection, and such ex- 
tinction is therefore the only method that looks toward the 
lessened remuneration of veterinarians as a body. In the 
face of these facts does not their consistent advocacy of ex- 
tinction of contagion savor more of public-spiritedness than 
of the selfishness so slanderously attributed ? 

For the instructed and high-minded veterinarian the ques- 
tion is mainly one of political economy. It is simply a ques- 
tion of how we can, at the cheapest rate and in the shortest 
period, rid ourselves for ever of our pestilential enemy, and 
at once abolish all future loss and worry coming from this 
source. There is only one answer : By the prompt and 
remorseless extinction of every germ of contagion. We 
need make no account here of the sadredness of life. The 
killing of an infected and infecting animal is not murder. 
We entertain no such feelings concerning the tens of thou- 
sands of animals that die daily under the knife of the 
butcher, and the lives of which might have been prolonged 
with safety to others. Why should we hesitate to sacrifice 
the few, whose systems are multiplying by inconceivable 
myriads the germs that are so deadly to others of their race, 
and which in the case of several plagues are now costing the 
country more every year than it would take to exterminate 
them once for all ? The question is essentially one of dol- 
lars and cents. The only moral elements that enter into it 
are the questions of the remuneration of the stockowner for 
the animals expropriated for the public good, and the pro- 
tection of the public at large from the consumption of dis- 
eased and often dangerous meat and milk. The last ques- 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 75 

tion is more effectually met by thorough extinction of pesti- 
lence than by any other method, and the indemnity of the 
owner in no niggardly spirit is a simple matter of justice 
on the part of the nation toward the citizen. 

Measures for Extinction of a Prevailing Plague. It is 
not within the province of this book to treat fully on the en- 
tire subject of veterinary sanitary administration, yet it 
seems desirable that the public at large should be made ac- 
quainted with the leading principles that must guide such 
administration. The measures will necessarily vary with 
each animal plague, and to some extent according to the nat- 
ure of the local animal industry, yet some general princi- 
ples must dominate in all cases, and these may be stated un- 
der separate headings. 

Setting aside the preliminary discovery of the plague in a 
State or district toward which investigations must often be 
made on the merest suspicion, in a country where move- 
ment is so free as with us, and in which the plague in ques- 
tion already exists, we may note those fundamental meas- 
ures that look especially toward extinction. 

1st. The infected district must be proclaimed. 

2d. All movement of animals susceptible to the plague 
in question must be temporarily stopped in the infected dis- 
trict. 

3d. All mingling or contact of separate herds of suscepti- 
ble animals within said district must be put a stop to. 

4th. All exposure of susceptible animals on public high 
ways or on unfenced pasturages must be vigorously inter- 
dicted. 

5th. Insusceptible animals mingling with suspected herds 
must be prohibited from passing into other herds of suscepti- 
ble animals. 

6th. Attendants on suspected herds must be rigidly kept 
from all other susceptible animals. Visitors except such as 
attend officially must be excluded from all suspected herds. 



76 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

7th. Markets or fairs in infected localities must not be 
held. 

8th. The expiration of the period of incubation will lead 
to the development of cases of disease, and wherever these 
appear the herd must be even more rigidly segregated. 

9th. In the case of deadly contagia the whole herd should 
be at once condemned, appraised at not less than two-thirds 
their sound value, and promptly slaughtered. The carcases 
of animals that show no disease after death may be sold as 
human food, in the case of certain diseases, but not in all. 
To making such into canned food there is no objection. 
Hides should only be removed after a prolonged steeping in 
solution of chloride of lime. The carcases of the diseased 
are best destroyed by fire, or disinfected by boiling, but they 
may, when necessary, be deeply buried in a dry, porous soil, 
where the free circulation of air will secure an early disin- 
fection. 

10th. The building, utensils, yards, etc., with which the 
infected herd has come in contact must be subjected to a 
thorough disinfection. (See below, Disinfection.) 

11th. The infected buildings must be left empty until all 
danger has passed. This may entail thorough aeration for 
several months after disinfecting applications have been 
made. 

12th. Hay, fodder, feed, litter, etc., in infected buildings 
should be destroyed. 

13th. Manure from infected places must be burned or dis- 
infected with chloride of lime. 

To exclude an Animal Plague from a Country. 1st. 
Prohibit all importation of animals susceptible to the plague 
in question, and of their products. 

2d. Disinfect the surface of all imported animals of a 
genus insusceptible to the plague, but that may have cohab- 
ited with those that are susceptible. 

3d. Disinfect all blankets, or other clothing and utensils 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 77 

imported with such animals, the clothing of their attendants, 
and the clothing of all emigrants who have had to do with 
susceptible animals. 

4th. In place of absolute prohibition, as called for in No. 
1, susceptible animals must be imported under careful re- 
strictions, including a quarantine after arrival for a period 
equal to the longest known incubation of the plague which 
it is desired to exclude. 

5th. Prohibit the importation of baled hay, straw, or other 
farm product, in the preparation or removal of which the 
domestic animals are usually employed, or which is usually 
stored in buildings beside the dwellings of such animals. 

These headings are only given as illustrative of the gen- 
eral principles which must be carried out in such cases. In 
putting them in practice they must be elaborated materially 
in various directions. But in thus elaborating and adminis- 
tering them no laxity and no exceptions must be admitted. 
In many of the concerns of life a blunder or neglect results 
in an immediate loss, the extent of which can be at once seen 
and the after-effects of which are nil. But in dealing with 
the invisible but unspeakably prolific bacteria of animal 
plagues, a blunder is quite likely to prove fatal, and anything 
like laxity is almost of necessity the road to failure and ruin. 
It is in this respect that the man of business usually fails. 
The dealer demands that live stock shall be examined at a 
particular point and a certificate of health shall be given if 
no disease is discovered. The magistrate carries out the law 
in (what he calls) its spirit (?), ignoring its letter, and undoes 
everything which it was designed to effect. The legislator 
insists that his constituent and supporter has selected his 
stock with extreme care, and that there can be no danger in 
making the quarantine merely nominal in his particular case. 
The city magnate finding that his animals from an infected 
locality cannot be admitted to a public sale, makes a ficti- 
tious sale to some one outside in order that his stock may 



78 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

ostensibly come from another district and thus gain admit- 
tance. The agents of great live stock interests are sent into 
Congress and to foreign lands to deny point-blank the ex- 
istence of animal plagues that are simply notorious in their 
prevalence. The patriotic citizen demands the appointment 
of two or three microscopists to examine and certify to the 
soundness of our meat-products in a centre where many 
thousands are butchered daily and where a whole army of 
microscopists could not satisfactorily carry oat such work. 
In no other field of human activity is a most thorough know- 
ledge of the subject and a most unbending and impartial 
administration demanded than in this. 

DISINTECTION'. 

Disinfection cannot be treated fully in the short space that 
can here be given to it, yet the general principles and some 
of the more potent of the agents employed may be noticed. 

The first and main object in disinfection is to secure per- 
fect cleanliness. From the buildings, cars, loading banks, 
ships, quays, yards, manure-pits, drains, cesspools, harness, 
clothing, utensils, etc. , all decaying organic matter should be 
removed, by scraping, washing, emptying, etc., as such decom- 
posing organic matter is the food which sustains and pre- 
serves the disease-germs out of the body. Even the water 
and air must be carefully seen to, since in close places they 
are usually charged with invisible particles of organic matters 
in a state of decay, the most suitable field for the growth of 
contagious principles. These, too, tend to purify themselves 
in a free circulation of air, and ventilation may be largely 
relied upon for this purpose, unless the deleterious supplies 
are too abundant from some adjacent putrid accumulation, 
as dung-heaps, cesspools, leaky drains, or soil saturated with 
filth. Purity of the surroundings kills many contagious ele- 
ments on the principle of starvation. 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 79 

Some disinfectants operate by destructive oxidation of the 
infecting material. Simple aeration often acts thus, and 
much more when the aerial oxygen is combined in the form 
of ozone, so abundant after thunder-storms, and developed to 
a lesser extent by camphor and some of the essential oils. 
Ozone is, however, rapidly used up in filthy stables, in cities, 
and in connection with decomposing organic matters gen- 
erally. 

A much more prompt, thorough, and reliable oxidizing 
disinfectant is fire. Burking is the best of all disinfect- 
ants. Rotten and filth-saturated wood-work, infected ma- 
nure, fodder, litter, and even the infected carcases of animals 
may be safely disposed of in this way. It may be used in a 
plumber's charcoal stove placed in all parts of a stable in 
succession, or over the opening of a drain, or as a lamp in 
the ventilating outlet of an infected building. 

Certain oxygen-bearing agents, like running, rippling, or 
falling water, and inert powders (charcoal, plaster-of-Paris) 
which condense oxygen on their surface, and bring it into 
closer contact with the adjoining germs and their products ; 
also chemical agents which liberate oxygen (chlorine gas, 
chloride of lime, permanganate of potassa, peroxide of 
hydrogen, iodine, bromine, hyponitric acid, bichromate of 
potass a, etc.), are more or less effective in the same way. 
Other agents act on the germs in different ways, such as by 
abstracting the oxygen requisite to the life of the germ, by 
coagulating its albuminous substance and otherwise. To 
this class belong the fumes of burning sulphur, the salts of 
zinc, iron, manganese, copper, and mercury, also carbolic and 
cresylic acids, creosote, thymol, menthol, and allied agents. 

Among these none holds a higher place than chloride of 
mercury, but its highly poisonous nature forbids its general 
use. In its place chloride of lime may be confidently and 
safely used in the proportion of four ounces to every gallon 
of a lime whitewash. Such a preparation has the advan- 



80 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

tage of showing clearly the extent of its application, insur- 
ing that no part shall be missed, and thus it becomes even, 
a more certain disinfectant than the more potent salt of 
mercury. As a powder it may be sprinkled on floors, 
yards, manure-heaps, and in drains, cess-pools, etc. 

For dairies, in which the smell of the chloride of lime 
will injure the milk, chloride of zinc may be substituted. 

Chlorine gas, set free by pouring sulphuric acid on com- 
mon salt, with a slight admixture of black oxide of man- 
ganese, is one of the most effective purifiers of the air of 
buildings. Doors and windows should be closed, though 
light is beneficial to its action. The salt and black manga- 
nese should be placed in a bowl in the centre of the floor, 
and the operator, taking a full breath, should pour in the 
sulphuric acid and retreat outside the door before taking 
another breath. The gas is a violent and suffocating irri- 
tant, and if inhaled is promptly fatal. 

Sulphurous acid gas, obtained by burning sulphur in a 
metal pot, may be fairly started, then left in the centre of 
the room and all outlets closed for from five to ten hours. 
The same precautions are necessary as with chlorine, for 
though it is somewhat less irritating it is equally suffocating. 
Both gases will act on solids as well as on the air, and to 
make sure of their action the air and surfaces should be 
charged with moisture. Perfectly dry germs will often 
survive, whereas moist ones are quickly destroyed. Hence, 
a current of steam may be sent into the building, or all 
exposed surfaces may be watered before the gas is set free. 

Some disinfectants act by merely changing the physical 
condition of organic matter, and thereby destroying the 
vitality of the living germ, without any chemical abstraction 
from, or addition to, its constituents. Thus heating to the 
boiling-point (212° F.) coagulates albuminous matters and 
destroys infectious principles generally. But it must be 
prolonged for a variable time, according to the size of the 



Contagious and Epizootic Diseases. 81 

object, to allow of the heat penetrating to all parts alike. 
In the case of germs which have formed resting spores, it 
may be further needful to repeat the boiling on several 
successive days, time being allowed in the interval for the 
development of the spore into the more destructible bac- 
terium. Clothing may be heated in an oven to 300° F., or, 
safer, boiled, and even the prolonged application of hot 
transparent steam, directed from a hose upon wood-work, 
etc., previously well cleaned, is found effectual. 

Some poisons, like those of Texas fever, cholera, and 
yellow fever, are destroyed by freezing, while the majority 
are merely imprisoned in the ice, but resume their evil work 
as soon as they are thawed out. 

Carbolic acid may also be used in occupied buildings, 
being allowed to evaporate from shallow basins, alone or 
mixed with ether or alcohol, from saturated rugs hung up 
at intervals, or from cloth-lined ventilating inlets, kept 
saturated with the acid, or, finally, it may be diffused 
through the air of a building by an atomizer. It is, how- 
ever, rather an antiseptic than a germicide, preventing the 
propagation and increase of germs, while it really fails to 
kill them. Carbolic and cresylic acids may also be used 
for disinfecting solids and liquids, being poured into drains 
or sprinkled on the floors, walls, and other parts of the 
building. For the latter purpose the strong acid may be 
diluted with one hundred times its weight of water. The 
cheap impure acid is usually preferred for dung-heaps, 
yards, and other outside purposes but is disagreeable indoors. 
Coal-tar and wood-tar, from their contained carbolic acid 
and allied products are also good for out-door uses. 

The following are especially applicable to solids and 
liquids : 

Chloride of lime sprinkled on floors, yards, dung-heaps, 
etc., or applied to walls, wood-work, etc., or poured into 
drains, as a solution of £lb. to a gallon of water. 



82 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

Chloride of zinc is equally efficient but more expensive, 
and chloride of aluminium (choralum) is somewhat less 
potent. 

Sulphate of iron (copperas) is one of the most efficient 
and cheapest disinfectants for drains, manure, floors, yards, 
etc., and may be applied either in fine powder or in solu- 
tion . 

The sulphate of copper and zinc and perchloride of iron 
are efficient, but much more expensive. 

Saturated solutions of caustic potassa and soda are 
satisfactory for wood-work, harness, and utensils, but they 
are useless if diluted. Lime is useful in graves by absorb- 
ing the water and uniting with the organic debris, but 
is very unsatisfactory as a general disinfectant. 

Permanganate of potassa promptly changes putrefying 
organic matter, rendering it sweet and wholesome, but it is 
questionable how far it can destroy living organic germs, 
of which many of the contagious principles are composed. 
The same remarks apply to charcoal, animal and vegetable, 
and to earth, especially that containing a considerable pro- 
portion of clay or marl. 



CHAPTER III. 

SPECIFIC CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 

Variolain animals. Horse-pox. Cow-pox. Sheep-pox. Goat-pox. Swine 
pox. Dog-pox. Bird-pox. Aphthous fever, foot-and-mouth disease. Rinder 
pest. Lung-plague. Contagious pleuro-pneumonia. Strangles. Influenza, 
Typhoid or bilious fever. Canine distemper. Asiatic cholera. Swine-plague 
Hog-cholera. Texas fever. Canine madness, rabies. Bacillar anthrax 
Vibrionic anthrax. Pyaemia. Septicaemia. Bird-cholera. Chicken-cholera 
Actino-mycosis. Milk sickness. " The trembles." Glanders and farcy. 
Venereal disease of solipeds. Tuberculosis. Quebra-bunda. Beri-beri. 

VARIOLA 72V" ANIMALS. 

HOKSE-POX. • 

This is identical with cow-pox, being indistinguishable 
when inoculated on men and cattle. It most frequently at- 
tacks the limbs, but may affect the face or other part of the 
body. There is usually some little fever, which, however, 
passes unnoticed by the owner. Then swelling, heat, and 
tenderness supervene, commonly in a heel, and firm nodules 
form, increasing to one-third or one-half inch in diameter, 
the hair bristles up, and the skin reddens unless previously 
colored. On the ninth to the twelfth day a limpid fluid 
oozes from the surface and agglutinates the hairs in yellow- 
ish scabs, on the removal of which a red, raw depression is 
seen with the scab fixed in its centre. In three or four days 
the secretion ceases, the scabs dry up, and the parts heal 
spontaneously. It is easily transmitted from horse to horse, 
to man, or to cow. No treatment is required beyond weak 
astringent lotions (carbolic acid 1 dr., water 1 quart) or 
bland ointments. 



84 The Farmer 's Veterinary Adviser 



COW-POX. 

This is the same disease appearing in the cow. There is 
a preliminary slight fever, usually overlooked, succeeded by 
some diminution and increased coagulability of the milk and 
the appearance of the pox on the udder and teats. The ud- 
der is hot and tender for a day or two, then little pale red 
nodules, about as big as peas appear, growing to three- 
fourths to one inch in breadth by the eighth or tenth day, 
acquiring liquid contents, and often a central depression on 
the summit. The liquid in each pock is contained in 
several distinct sacs and cannot be all extracted without a 
succession of punctures on different parts. It contains a 
micrococcus. The liquid, at first clear, changes to yellowish 
white (pus) and soon dries up, the whole forming a hard 
crnst which is gradually detached. On the teats the blisters 
are early ruptured and raw sores form, often proving very 
obstinate, and even leading to inflammation of the udder, 
abortion, or death. 

Treatment is scarcely ever demanded further than to ob- 
viate sores on the teats. A mild laxative of Epsom salts is, 
however, usually desirable. The teats may be smeared with 
an ointment formed of an ounce each of spermaceti and al- 
mond oil, and half a drachm of myrrh. Milking-tubes may 
be necessary to avoid injury by drawing the teats. 

In many localities the disease appears in all newly calved 
heifers on particular farms, in which case it would be well 
to purify the barns by a thorough disinfection. 

SHEEP-POX. 

Though unknown in America there is no improbability 
of this disease reaching us through importations of sheep, 
hides, or wool. Like small-pox of man, it is only known as 
a contagious disease. The incubation or latent period of 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 85 

the poison, after it enters the system, is from three to six 
days in summer, and from ten to twelve in winter. Then 
there is loss of appetite, dullness, dropping behind the flock, 
and stiffness of the hind parts. This is followed by trem- 
bling, increased temperature, very manifest on the bare and 
delicate parts of the skin on which the eruption usually 
takes place, loss of appetite and rumination, costiveness, red, 
weeping eyes, a discharge from the nose, and the appear- 
ance of red patches inside the limbs and along the abdomen. 
Soon minute red points appear and increase to papules, with 
a firm base extending into the deeper parts of the skin. 
These are flat on the summit (rarely pointed or indented), 
and become pale or clear in the centre, from the effusion of 
liquid beneath the scurf -skin, with a red margin. With the 
appearance of the eruption the fever moderates, but in- 
creases again in three or four days witli the development 
and irritability of the vesicles. These may remain indi- 
vidually distinct {discrete), in which case the attack is mild, 
or they may run together into extensive patches {confluent), 
when the result is likely to be serious. The pocks will even 
appear on the visual, digestive, or respiratory mucous mem- 
brane. The eruption passes through the same course of exu- 
dation, suppuration, drying, and dropping off as in cow-pox. 
The duration of the disease is three weeks or a month. 
The mortality in the milder forms may not exceed seven 
per one hundred, in the more severe it may destroy almost 
the whole flock. But the losses of lambs by abortion, of 
wool, sight, hearing, hoofs, digits, flesh, and general vigor 
often render recoveries anything but unmixed blessings. 
The germ is a micrococcus. 

Treatment. Keep in cool, dry, well-aired and littered 
sheds, shelter from rain, and feed roots, or, if very weak, 
oat- and bean-meal gruels, with a drachm of saltpetre to 
each sheep. Common salt may be supplied to be licked, 
and the drinking-water may be slightly acidulated with 



86 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

vinegar. The bowels should be opened by injections of 
milk-warm soapsuds, or 3 oz. sulphate of soda if necessary. 
Avoid heating agents. In the advanced stages support by 
quinia, gentian, nitric acid, and nutritious gruels, even 
animal broths. The pustules may be treated with the 
ointment advised for cow-pox, or, if unhealthy, with weak 
solutions of chloride of zinc. 

Prevention. Nothing short of general infection will 
justify the treatment of this disease. It should be excluded 
from our country by the most stringent supervision over 
the importation of sheep and their products, and when it 
does appear should be promptly stamped out by the de- 
struction and disinfection of the sick and the purification 
of all with which they have come in contact. Inoculation 
as a measure of prevention is unwarrantable except in the 
case of wide-spread infection, a contingency which ought 
never to arise in this country. 

GOAT-POX. 

This is a rare and mild affection, with an eruption on the 
udder and teats closely resembling that of Cow-pox. It 
has been thought to be spontaneous in the goat, but is 
known to be derived from sheep suffering from /Sheep-pox. 
It follows a mild course and requires the same care as Cow- 
pox. Seclusion or destruction and disinfection are, how- 
ever, imperative when danger is likely to arise for sheep. 

SWINE-POX. 

This is more frequent than Goat-pox. It is communica- 
ble to man and goat. Young pigs are thought to be most 
liable. The eruption appears inside the forearm and thighs, 
and is usually preceded by considerable fever. It is discrete 
or confluent like Sheep-pox, and the severity corresponds. 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 87 

The duration of the mild forms is twelve to fifteen days. 
Treatment is similar to that of Sheep-pox and the same 
precautions should be taken to prevent its dissemination. 

DOG-POX. 

These animals sometimes contract Small-pox or Sheep- 
pox, and have been supposed to have their own specific 
form besides. The young suffer most frequently and se- 
verely. There is the usual preliminary fever, with an 
eruption on the sides and belly passing from pimples to 
vesicles and pustules, and finally drying up into crusts which 
drop off. The eruption may be discrete or confluent, the 
latter being very fatal. Similar preventive measures are 
demanded, as in the other forms of pox. 

BIKD-POX. 

Birds seem susceptible to different forms of variola, hav- 
ing contracted the disease from man in some cases, and in 
others conveyed it to the sheep. Chickens failed to con- 
tract Cow-pox in the experiments of Roll and myself. It 
has proved very fatal in chickens, but very slightly so in 
pigeons, turkeys, and geese. The eruption appears mainly 
on the head, under the wing, on the tongue, or in the 
pharynx. In fatal cases death ensued in four or five days. 
Treatment would rarely be desirable, the great point being 
to stamp out the malady by destroying the diseased and 
disinfecting the place. 

APHTHOUS FEVER. FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE. 

A contagious eruptive fever, attacking cloven-footed 
animals and communicable to other warm-blooded animals, 
including even man. Its special feature is the eruption of 
blisters in the mouth, on the udder and teats, and on the 



88 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

feet. It is only known as communicated by contagion, 
whether in Western Europe, in Great Britain and Ireland, 
where it was introduced in 1839-42, or in North and South 
America, which it reached in 1870 by imported stock. 
Like the other animal plagues it follows in the track of 
great armies and in the channels of commerce. The con- 
tagion does not readily spread on the air, a river or common 
road being often sufficient to limit it, but no poison is more 
certainly transmitted by contact, direct or through the 
medium of human beings, tame or wild animals, fodder, 
litter, manure, clothing, drinking- troughs, etc., etc. Milk 
is one of the most frequent sources of contagion to pigs, 
dogs, and even to infants, producing the most dangerous 
intestinal irritation and diarrhoea. 

Symptoms. The poison may remain latent in the system 
for one or two days, or, in exceptional cases, perhaps as many 
as six. Then there is roughness of the coat or shivering, in- 
creased temperature, dry muzzle, hot red mouth, teats, and 
interdigital spaces, lameness, inclination to lie, and shrink- 
ing from the hand in milking. The second or third day 
blisters arise on any part of the whole interior of the mouth, 
one-half to one inch in breadth, or on the teats and between 
the digits about one-half inch across. Saliva drivels from 
the mouth, collecting in froth around the lips, and a loud 
smacking is made with the lips and tongue. Swine champ 
the jaws. Sheep and swine suffer more especially in the 
feet, often losing the hoofs or even the digital bones, a con- 
tingency not unknown in neglected cattle. 

Among the consequences may be named the loss of milk, 
inflamed udders, blind teats, a habit of vicious kicking, 
abortions, permanent lameness, and a lengthened incapacity 
for the dairy, for feeding, or work. If well cared for the 
disease passes in fifteen days, leaving no ill consequence, ex- 
cepting the poison hidden away in the building. The aver- 
age loss in flesh is $5 to $10 ; in dairy cows it is much more. 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 89 

Treatment. A laxative (Epsom salts) ; astringent mouth- 
wash (borax and tincture of myrrh 1 oz. each, Water 1 qt. ; 
or carbolic acid 1 dr., honey 2 oz., vinegar 1 pt., water 1 pt.) ; 
a lotion for the teats (carbolic acid \ dr., glycerine 10 oz.) ; 
and a dressing for the feet (oil of vitriol 1 oz., water 4 oz., 
to be applied with a feather after cleaning the space between 
the hoofs by drawing a cloth through it). After dressing, 
tie up the feet in a tar bandage. The hind feet are easily 
dressed if two men raise each separately with a long, stout 
fork-handle passed in front of the hock. In dressing the 
feet all detached horn should be removed and a poultice 
applied if inflammation runs high. Soft cold mashes or 
thinly sliced or pulped roots are the best food throughout. 

Prevention. Importation of diseased animals should be 
sufficiently guarded against. Diseased stock should be 
rigidly secluded from all but the necessary attendants, who 
ought to be disinfected on leaving the enclosure. Wild ani- 
mals, even birds, should be excluded. Every place where 
the diseased have been should be closed for a winter or dis- 
infected, the milk should be buried in a safe place, or boiled 
and given to pigs ; manure, infected litter, etc., may be burned, 
or disinfected, removed, and ploughed under by horses. Ko 
diseased animal should be moved until fifteen days after full 
recovery, and it should first be sponged over with a carbolic- 
acid wash. 

RUSSIAN CATTLE-PLAGUE. RINDERPEST. 

A contagious fever of cattle communicable to other rumi- 
nants and characterized by a general congestion of the mu- 
cous membranes, but, above all, those of the stomach and 
intestines, and an excessive growth and shedding of the 
superficial layers of cells on the skin and mucous mem- 
branes. It is only propagated by contagion, at least, out of 
the Kirghiz steppes and Kherson district in Southern Rus- 
sia, but spreads farther on the air than Aphthous Fever. 



90 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

Symptoms. Incubation lasts about two days until the 
temperature of the body is elevated, or four days until the ap- 
pearance of outward signs of illness. By this time the 
mouth, inside the lips, on the dental pad of the upper jaw, 
or around the gums of the lower front teeth, shows minute 
white elevations, like the aphtha of the mouths of children, 
calves, and lambs suffering from thrush (muguet). This may 
be exceedingly slight and transient, but is most characteristic. 
The other mucous membranes, (eye, vulva, rectum, nose) 
show a more or less dark flush, and concretions may ap- 
pear around these and on other parts of the skin, especially 
the teats. These are solid aggregations of epithelial cells, 
not vesicles nor pustules. In twenty-four hours they undergo 
fatty softening and are easily detached, leaving small pink 
erosions, and by the sixth day a great part of the mouth and 
muzzle may have become raw, and the surrounding mucous 
membrane of a deep red. About the fourth day the skin feels 
greasy, and dullness and impaired appetite and rumination 
appear. In cows the milk is diminished, is richer in cream, 
and even slightly coagulable. Urine becomes scanty and of 
a high color and density. These signs increase until the 
sixth day, when the mouth is often raw, saliva drivels, appe- 
tite and rumination gone, bowels relaxed, the dung passed 
with much straining and pain, the everted gut appearing of 
a deep red or port- wine hue, the ears are drawn back, head 
pendent, eyes half-closed and watery, back arched and often 
insensible to pinching, abdominal muscles tense and resist- 
ant, and there is a peculiar check in the act of expiration, 
the breath being suddenly arrested with a flapping sound 
and concussion of the entire body, to be exhaled a second or 
two later with a grunting noise. Sighing and whistling 
sounds are heard in the chest and it becomes unnaturally 
drum-like to percussion. A sudden lowering of temperature 
is usually the precursor of death, which happens on the 
seventh or eighth day. 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 91 

Nervous symptoms appear in some outbreaks, with de- 
lirium, butting, shivering, and tenderness of the loins, while 
in the milder cases the peculiar eruption may be almost 
altogether confined to the skin. 

The symptoms in other ruminants are essentially the 
same as in the ox, and in the peccary there is sufficient re- 
semblance for recognition. 

The mortality out of its native habitat usually amounts to 
forty per cent, and upward. 

Treatment. The treatment of this plague should be 
legally prohibited under all circumstances. All the at- 
tempts of the different schools of medicine and of empiri- 
cism have only increased its ravages, while nations and even 
countries and districts that have vigorously stamped it out 
and excluded it have saved their property. 

Prevention. The advent of this plague should be pre- 
vented by a sufficient supervision of our ports and fron- 
tiers and a quarantine of stock. If admitted, the victims 
should be ruthlessly destroyed, deeply buried, and all places 
and things with which they have come in contact disinfected 
in the most perfect manner. 

THE LUNG-PLAGUE OF CATTLE, CONTAGIOUS PLEURO-PNEUMONIA. 

A specific contagious fever of cattle, with extensive ex- 
udation into the chest and lungs containing a micrococcus. 

Like the other plagues already noticed this is only known 
in Europe and America as a contagious disease. Its impor- 
tation into the different countries of Europe has always 
been traceable to the introduction of diseased beasts or their 
products. The assertion of the immortal Ilaller, more than 
a century ago, that it is propagated by contagion, has re- 
ceived the amplest confirmation in recent times. It invaded 
Ireland in 1839-40 by Dutch cattle, England in 1842 by 
Irish and Dutch cattle, Sweden and Denmark in 1847 by 



92 The Farmers Veterinary Adviser. 

English stock, and later again by English and Dutch, Nor- 
way in 1860 by infected Ayrshires, Oldenburg in 1858, and 
Schleswig in 1859, in each case by Ayrshires, the Cape of 
Good Hope in 1854:, Australia in 1858 by an English cow, 
Brooklyn, L. I., in 1818 by a Dutch cow, and again in 1850 
by an English one, New Jersey in 1847 by English stock, 
and Boston, Mass., by Dutch cattle in 1859. In Sweden, 
Norway, Denmark, Oldenburg, Schleswig, Massachusetts, 
and New Jersey it was stamped out, in the last- case by the 
importer, Mr. Richardson, sacrificing his whole herd and 
voluntarily assuming the loss, but in the other places named 
it was left to itself and spread disastrously. 

Symptoms. The period of latency of the poison in the 
system is from four to six weeks, and in exceptional cases 
perhaps three or four months, or as short as ten days. In- 
creased temperature of the body usually appears a week 
or two before other symptoms. Then there is a slight 
cough, erection of hair along the back, sometimes shivering 
and always tenderness of the back to pinching, the animal 
crouching and groaning. Soon breathing and pulse become 
accelerated, bowels costive, urine scanty and high-colored, 
milk diminished, appetite impaired, rumination irregular, 
nose alternately moist and dry, and legs and horns cold and 
hot. If in the field, the sick leave the herd. The cough 
increases in harshness, depth, and painfulness, and all the 
symptoms are aggravated until the animal stands in one 
posture, with head extended on the neck, mouth open, and 
every breath accompanied by a loud moan. From the 
earliest stages the ear applied to the sides of the chest de- 
tects an absence of murmur over particular parts of the 
lung, or lungs, with a line of crepitation (fine crackling) 
around it, and occasionally rubbing, wheezing, and other 
unnatural sounds. On percussion over the silent parts the 
natural resonance is found to have given place to dullness, 
and the animal winces and groans. Other peculiar sounds 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 93 

may follow later, into which we caimot enter here, and 
exhausting liquid discharges from the bowels and kidneys, 
tympanies and abortions are frequent results. Death may 
take place early, from suffocation, when both lungs are 
involved, or may be delayed six weeks or more. Slight 
attacks, common in the Northern States in winter, may 
only cause a few days of fever, but usually leave encysted 
masses of dead, diseased tissue in the lungs, that render the 
apparently recovered animal dangerous to others for long 
after. 

The percentage of deaths and permanent destruction to 
health is fifty or sixty, or when all the more susceptible 
animals have perished it may be reduced much lower. 

Treatment. This disease is much more amenable to 
treatment than rinderpest, but to preserve the sick is no 
less reprehensible, as the poison is more subtle, more dif- 
fusible through the atmosphere, is hidden unsuspected for 
a greater length of time in the body of its victim, and 
when manifested is far more liable to be mistaken for other 
diseases (pneumonia, pleurisy, bronchitis). No treatment 
should ever be allowed, except in perfect^ secluded build- 
ings, far from roads, where no strange men or animals can 
get access, and in a constantly disinfected atmosphere. 

In the early stages, refrigerant and diuretic salts (liquor 
of the acetate of ammonia, nitre, bisulphite of soda) with 
aconite may be given ; injections of warm water or mile! 
laxatives (Epsom salt), used to regulate the bowels, and 
blisters applied to the sides of the chest (mustard and oil 
of turpentine). Later, when prostration sets in, stimulants 
(sweet spirits of nitre, wine, aromatic ammonia, etc.) and 
tonics (gentian, cinchona, cascariila, boneset, sulphate of 
iron or copper, mineral acids, etc.) are called for. Anti- 
septics are useful, especially such as can be inhaled in the 
air (sulphur fumes, carbolic acid vapor or spray) and thus 
reach the seat of disease. 



94 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

The hydropathic treatment, by a rug wrung out of water 
applied next the skin and covered by several dry ones kept 
closely applied by elastic surcingles for an hoar and fol- 
lowed by a cold douche and active rubbing till dry, has 
proved very successful, but demands intelligence, enthusiasm, 
and activity on the part of the attendants. The pack is 
repeated as often as the temperature rises. 

Prevention. Importation should only be allowed from 
countries free from the plague, in ships that have carried 
no suspected stock for at least three months, and after 
inspection and, if thought necessary, quarantine at the 
port of entry. But the disease already exists in New 
York (Connecticut), New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, 
Maryland, Virginia, Illinois, and District of Columbia. 
This ought to be rooted out by measures executed by the 
central government and defrayed out of the public treasury. 
Little good must be looked for from isolated action by 
States, counties, townships, or individual owners; the dan- 
ger threatens the entire country, and for the general safety 
all must pay. It is absurd to expect the unfortunate pos- 
sessor of sick animals to beggar himself for the public 
good. There should be destruction of the sick, partial re- 
muneration of the owners, thorough disinfection under pro- 
fessional supervision, and the most perfect control and con- 
stant inspection of all suspected herds and places until the 
malady has been eradicated from the land. This is the 
most insidious of all our animal plagues, the one which 
now most urgently presses for active interference, and which, 
if neglected, will bring a terrible retribution in the future. 

Inoculation, as a preventive, like medical treatment, is 
suicidal unless where a country is very generally infected, 
and in this case even sterilized virus should be used. (See 
Lung Plague in Appendix.) 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 95 



STRANGLES. DISTEMPER IN YOUNG HORSES. 

A specific fever of young solipeds, usually attended with 
swellings and formations of matter between the bones of 
the lower jaw, or elsewhere in groups of lymphatic glands. 

Causes. Early age, change from field to stable, from 
grass to dry feeding, from idleness to exciting work, the ir- 
ritation of teething, and, above all, change of locality and 
climate. Repeated attacks will occur in the same horse 
under the influence of the last-named cause. Exposure to 
cold and wet, impure air, sudden thaws, etc., contribute to 
hasten its development. Lastly, contagion is a common 
cause, and, in some cases, the malady may even be conveyed 
to man. 

Symptoms. The disease is often preceded by a period of 
unthriftiness, staring coat, loss of condition, dullness, and 
languor. Then there appear cough, redness of the nasal 
membrane, and watery flow from the nose and eyes, slaver- 
ing, accelerated breathing and pulse, costiveness, scanty 
high-colored urine, and increased thirst. Soon a swelling 
rises between the bones of the lower jaw, hot, tender, and 
uniformly rounded and smooth, at first hard with soft, 
doughy margins, later soft and fluctuating in the centre 
from the formation of matter. Water is often returned 
from the nose in drinking and food dropped after chewing. 
The throat may even be closed so as to make breathing 
laborious, difficult, and noisy, or quite impossible. With 
rupture of the abscess and escape of the matter, relief is ob- 
tained and a steady recovery may usually be counted on. 

Irregular Forms. The swelling may harden in place of 
softening, and maintain the disease for an indefinite time, 
or it may disappear and be followed by the formation of 
matter in other and more vital organs. Thus matter may 
form in the groups of lymphatic glands about the shoulder, 



96 The Farmer 's Veterinary Adviser. 

groin, the roots of the lungs, the mesentery, the brain, etc. 
Sometimes no swelling nor suppuration takes place beyond 
the discharge from the nose, while at others a pustular erup- 
tion on the skin is the manifestation of the disease. 

The disease may be over in ten days, or, in cases of indolent 
action in the swelling, it may be protracted for months. If 
properly treated, the regular form generally does well, but 
the irregular is fatal in proportion to the vitality of the 
organ affected. In protracted cases and in those subjected 
to impure air and weakening treatment, dropsical and san- 
guineous swellings in the dependent parts of the body {pur- 
pura liaimorrhagicd) is a frequent result. 

Treatment. Sustain the strength of the patient by abun- 
dance of soft, nourishing mashes and pure air, and promote 
the formation of matter between the jaws by fomentations, 
poultices, and steaming of the nostrils. A poultice may be 
applied by a square of calico with holes for the ears and 
eyes, tied down the middle of the face and sewed up a little 
at the chin to prevent any from dropping out. Bran or 
oil meal may be used along with hot water. Steaming 
may be done by feeding hot bran mashes from a nose- 
bag hung on the head. When matter points it should be 
freely evacuated with the lancet, and the poultices con- 
tinued to complete the softening. If suffocation is threat- 
ened, the windpipe must be opened in the middle of the 
neck and a tube inserted to breathe through. 

Medicine is rarely required. Yet costiveness may be 
counteracted by warm water injections, and weakness by 
stimulants (muriate and carbonate of ammonia) and tonics 
(gentian, calumba, willow-bark). Complications must be 
treated according to their nature. 

INFLUENZA. 

A specific epizootic fever of a low type associated with 
inflammation of the respiratory mucous membrane, or less 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 97 

frequently of other organs. It has prevailed at intervals 
over different parts of the world in man, horses, dogs, and 
even cats. 

Causes. Nothing can be definitely stated as to the pri- 
mary cause of its development, as all peculiar conditions of 
soil, volcanic action, atmospheric electricity, aerial moisture 
or dryness, density or levity, season, temperature, winds, 
calms, ozone, and antozone fail to account for its appearance. 
The great American epizootic of 1872 was preceded and ac- 
companied in Michigan by an excess of ozone, but the excess 
did not determine its appearance in other States, which it 
invaded by a gradual progress and with a rapidity propor- 
tional to the celerity, of communication. Again, insular and 
sequestrated places escaped, as Prince Edward's Island, 
(frozen out), Vancouver's Island (quarantined), Key West, 
Hayti, St. Domingo, Jamaica, La Paz, by the non-importa- 
tion of horses (Cuba suffered through imported American 
horses). It stopped at Panama, where there is no horse 
traffic, owing to the state of the country. (See the author's 
report to Government, and report of New York Board of 
Health.) 

Symptoms. The disease conies on suddenly with extreme 
weakness and stupor. There is often pendant head, half- 
closed, lustreless eyes, great disinclination to move, with 
swaying gait, and cracking joints. Appetite is lost, mouth 
hot, clammy, bowels costive, urine scanty and high-colored, 
pulse accelerated and weak (sometimes hard), a cough, deep, 
painful, and racking comes on, crepitation or harsh blowing- 
sounds are heard in the chest, and the membrane of the nose 
assumes a bright pink or dull leaden hue. The ears and 
limbs are alternately cold and hot, the hair rough, the skin 
tender and frequently trembling. 

Soon the nose discharges a white, yellowish, or greenish 
matter, and the animal may recover, or an increasingly heavy 
breathing, depth and painfullness of cough, and changed or 
9 » 



98 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

absent respiratory sounds in the chest, with dullness on per- 
cussion show that the lungs are seriously involved. Thus 
there may be the symptoms of pneumonia, pleurisy, bron- 
chitis, hydro thorax, pericarditis, hydropericardium, etc. 
Clots sometimes form in the heart, modifying the heart- 
sounds and proving rapidly fatal. 

In other cases the abdominal organs suffer, and with great 
torpor, stupor, tension and tenderness of the abdominal 
walls there are colicky pains, ardent thirst, coated tongue, 
yellowness of the membranes of nose and eyes, yellow or 
reddish urine, costive bowels and dung in pellets thickly 
coated with mucus. 

Sometimes rheumatic swelling and tenderness take place 
in the muscles and joints of the limbs, and may even last 
for months. At others, paralysis or delirium will ensue, or, 
finally, severe inflammation of the eyes. 

Treatment. Overcome costiveness by injections of warm 
water, or by one-third the usual doses of linseed oil or aloes. 
Give mild febrifuge diuretics (liquor of acetate of ammonia, 
spirit of nitrous ether), with anodynes (extract of bella- 
donna), and when fever subsides or great prostration comes 
on, stimulants (nitrous ether, aromatic ammonia, carbonate 
of ammonia) and even tonics (gentian, calumba, quassia). 

Counter-irritants (ammonia and oil, equal parts, mustard, 
etc.) may be used from the first to the throat, sides, or ab- 
domen, according to the seat of the inflammation. 

Soft mashes, roots, or green food, pure air, without 
draughts, and warm clothing are essentials of treatment 
throughout. 

If the abdominal organs are the main seat of disease, 
supplement the medicines above named by demulcents (slip- 
pery elm, mallow, boiled linseed) and anodynes (opium, 
hydrocyanic acid) with, in some cases, a gentle laxative 
(olive oil). Nervous symptoms may demand wet cloths to 
the head, blisters to the sides of the neck, purgatives, unless 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 99 

contra-indicated, and bromide of potassium. The rheu- 
matic complication must be treated like ordinary rheuma- 
tism, with colchicum, salicin, salicylate of soda, propylamine, 
acetate of potassa, turpentine, warmth, counter-irritants, etc. 

TYPHOID, GASTEIC, OE BILIOUS FEVER. 

This strongly resembles the abdominal form of influenza 
and sometimes occurs in the same place at the same time. 
It also appears independently in horses weakened by shed- 
ding their coats in spring and autumn, in those kept in a 
hot, close, impure, and unwholesome atmosphere, fed insuffi- 
ciently or on badly -preserved, musty, or otherwise injured 
aliment, supplied with water containing an excess of decom- 
posing organic matter, fed irregularly, subjected to over- 
work, etc. Finally it proves contagious in confined, insalu- 
brious buildings, and to a less extent, in those that are 
wholesome and well aired. Some unknown, generally acting 
influence makes it more virulent at one season than at an- 
other. 

Symptoms. There are a few days of dullness and lassi- 
tude followed by the general signs of fever: Staring coat, 
shivering, alternate heat and coldness of the surface, rest- 
lessness, hot, dry mouth, and elevation of the internal tem- 
perature of the body. There is a yellowish tinge of the 
mucous membranes, costiveness, colicky pains, full, tense,* 
tender belly, passage of a few dark, hard pellets of dung 
covered with a mucous film, urine scanty, reddish, and de- 
positing a sediment, pulse rapid and weak, and there may 
or may not be sore throat, excited breathing, and discharge 
from the nose. In the more favorable cases, signs of im- 
provement are noticeable in eight or nine days, and a per- 
fect recovery is made. In the unfavorable, the pulse be- 
comes small, weak and rapid (eighty to ninety per minute), 
the mouth hotter, more clammy, and covered by yellow- 



100 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

ish, brownish, or greenish blotches, the abdominal walls 
more tender, the bowels more irritable, sometimes with a 
f cetid diarrhoea, and the strength is rapidly exhausted. The 
head is constantly pendant, the eye sunken, the expression 
of the countenance stupid and haggard, and the stupor or in- 
sensibility may become so great that pinching or even prick- 
ing of the skin may pass unnoticed by the animal. Death 
usually takes place from the tenth to the twentieth day. 

Treatment. English veterinarians rely much on calomel, 
and with a firm, full pulse, not too rapid, a general warmth 
of surface and extremities, a bright eye, cheerful counte- 
nance, whitish, foetid dung, and much yellowness of the eye, 
nose, or mouth, a few doses of calomel (10 grs.) and opium 
(30 grs.), repeated twice daily, may be useful in stimulating 
the liver and throwing off injurious agents from the blood. 
But it is to be avoided when there is a weak, rapid pulse 
and great prostration and debility, and in no case should it 
be given over two or three days, or until the system is satu- 
rated with the drug. Severe costiveness may be obviated 
by 2 or 3 drs. of aloes and a drachm of calomel, or by 
a daily dose of 2 or 3 Ozs. of Glauber's salt until relax- 
ation occurs. Soft feeding and copious injections of warm 
water must be continued to maintain the bowels in a healthy 
state. A drachm each of chlorate or nitrate of potassa 
and muriate of ammonia may be given three or four times 
'daily with the water drunk, or in case of great dullness 
and debility an ounce of oil of turpentine, sulphuric ether, 
sweet spirits of nitre, or carbonate of ammonia may be 
given as well. Great tenderness of the belly may be met 
by persistent hot fomentations and mustard poultices, and 
if necessary by half-drachm doses of opium. Tympany is 
treated by hand rubbing and by aromatic ammonia or oil 
of peppermint. During recovery 3 or 4 ozs. of tincture 
of gentian or cinchona may be given twice daily with mu- 
riate of iron and stimulants. Feed throughout on soft 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 101 

bran mashes, sliced roots, boiled oats or barlej', green 
grass, oil-cake, etc., giving from the hand if necessary. 
Secure pure air and water, cleanliness, warm clothing, and 
general comfort until restored to health. 

CANUTE DISTEMPER. 

A specific fever of the young domestic carnivora, affect- 
ing the respiratory organs, and it may be the abdominal 
viscera, the brain, the muscular system and joints, or the 
skin. One attack usually protects from a second. 

Causes. Connected, like strangles, with domestication, 
it is most severe on pet dogs kept in hot, close rooms, on 
spiced food, or confined in kennels. Change of climate, 
teething, and contagion are other causes. 

Symptoms. Dullness, peevishness, loss of appetite, dry 
nose, watery eyes, elevated temperature, increased pulse 
(110 to 120), sensitiveness to cold, shivering, cough and 
glairy or yellowish discharge from the nose. The cough 
becomes paroxysmal and is often followed by vomiting, the 
matter not being licked up again, the breathing is disturbed, 
and the chest-sounds on auscultation and percussion imply 
disease there. The animal is weak, debilitated and ema- 
ciated, and diarrhoea, ulceration of the mouth, and nervous 
symptoms usually precede death. 

The complications are marked by symptoms of bronchi- 
tis, pneumonia, enteritis, hepatitis, conjunctivitis, phrenitis 
and skin-disease. Diseases of the brain (cramps, convul- 
sions, chorea, paralysis) and skin-eruption are exceedingly 
common in the advanced stages. The ernption is peculiar, 
consisting of small blisters, containing often a reddish or 
purple fluid. 

Treatment. A warm, comfortable bed, pure air, and a 
milk, or bread and milk diet are important. The diet should 
not be so exclusive in dogs having had animal food only. 
9* 



102 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

A mild emetic (antimonial wine) or a slight laxative 
(castor oil) may be followed by tonics (gentian, quinia), 
febrifuges (saltpetre), and expectorants (ipecacuanha), with 
perhaps an anodyne (belladonna). As fever subsides, tonics 
must be given freely (wine, quinia, sulphate of iron, Fow- 
ler's solution). In all the various complications treat as for 
the different diseases, but avoid weakening remedies, and 
keep up tonics, stimulants, and a nutritious diet. 

MALIGNANT CHOLEKA. ASIATIC CHOLERA. 

This attacks the domestic quadrupeds and birds simul- 
taneously with man, and has been produced experimentally 
by feeding the dried bowel discharges. These were found 
to increase in virulence for several days then to decrease 
(Sanderson). The germ is a curved (comma) bacillus. 

Symptoms. Muscular cramps, great prostration, partial 
loss of motor power and excitability, great lowering of the 
body temperature (80° F.), deathly cold, bloodless extremi- 
ties, viscid tardily-flowing blood, and lastly, violent abdom- 
inal pains and fluid bowel dejections, often having the 
specific rice-water appearance. 

Treatment. The disease is mainly important as propa- 
gating a poison so fatal to the human being, hence the 
most perfect disinfection of all bowel dejections is imper- 
ative, together with the seclusion and burial of the sick 
'and dead. As an example of current treatment may be 
named, aromatics (oil of anise, oil of cajeput, oil of juni- 
per, tincture of cinnamon), stimulants (ether)/ and acids 
(sulphuric acid), mixed and given every quarter of an hour. 
In the early stages add opium to check diarrhoea. To 
overcome surface coldness and collapse, use hot fomenta- 
tions, rubbing, inhalation of nitrite of amyl ; to sheath 
the intestines, demulcent drinks (linseed tea, mallow, 
slippery elm), and to meet other states according to in- 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 103 

dications. Every separate case would demand special 
treatment. 

SWINE-PLAGUE. HOG-CHOLEBA. 

A specific contagious fever of swine, attended by conges- 
tion, exudation, blood extravasation, and ulceration of the 
membrane of the stomach and bowels, by liquid foetid diar- 
rhoea, by general heat and redness of the surface and by the 
appearance on the skin and mucous membranes of spots 
and patches of a scarlet, purple, or black color. It is fatal 
in from one to six days, or ends in a tedious, uncertain re- 
covery. The germ is in some epizootics a diplococcus, and 
in others a bacillus, implying two distinct diseases. 

Symptoms. Incubation ranges from a week or fortnight 
in cold weather to three days in warm. It is followed by 
shivering, dullness, prostration, hiding under the litter, un- 
willingness to rise, hot, dry snout, sunken eyes, unsteady 
gait behind, impaired or lost appetite, ardent thirst, in- 
creased temperature (103.2° to 105° F.) and pulse. With 
the occurrence of heat and soreness of the skin, it is suf- 
f lised with red patches and black spots, the former disap- 
pearing on pressure, the latter not. The tongue is thickly 
furred, the pulse small, weak, and rapid, the breathing ac- 
celerated and a hard dry cough is frequent. Sickness and 
vomiting may be present, the animal grunts or screams if 
the belly is handled, the bowels may be costive throughout, 
but more commonly they become relaxed about the third 
day and an exhausting foetid diarrhoea ensues. Lymph and 
blood may pass with the dung. Before death the patient 
loses control of the hind limbs and is often sunk in complete 
stupor, with muscular trembling, jerking, and involuntary 
motions of the bowels. The lymphatic glands swell in all 
cases. 

Causes. It is propagated by contagion, though faults in 
diet and management may prove accessory. The poison 



104 The Farmers Veterinary Adviser. 

will blow half a mile or more on the wind, and is with diffi- 
culty destroyed in hog-pens, fodder, etc. 

Treatment ought not to be permissible, unless in a con- 
stantly disinfected atmosphere. Feed well-boiled gruel of 
barley or rye, or, in case these raise the fever, corn-starch 
made with boiling water ; give to drink fresh cool water, 
slightly acidulated with sulphuric acid. For the early con- 
stipation give a mild laxative (castor oil, rhubarb) and in- 
jections of warm water, following up with fever medicine 
(nitrate of potassa and bisulphite of soda). If the patient 
survives the first few days and shows signs of ulceration of 
the bowels (bloody d ung, tender belly), give oil of turpentine, 
fifteen to twenty drops night and morning. Follow up with 
tonics, and careful soft feeding. 

Prevention. Kill and bury the diseased ; thoroughly 
disinfect all they have come in contact with ; watch the 
survivors for the first sign of illness, test all suspicious sub- 
jects with the thermometer in the rectum, and separate from 
the herd if it shows more than 103° F., destroying as soon 
as distinct signs of the disease are shown. Feed vegetable 
or animal charcoal, bisulphite of soda, carbolic acid, or sul- 
phate of iron to the healthy, and avoid all suspected food, 
places, or even water which has run near a diseased herd. 
All newly purchased pigs should be placed at a safe dis- 
tance, in quarantine under separate attendants, until their 
health has been proved. 

TEXAS FEVER. 

A specific fever, rising in the low, malarious grounds of 
the States bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, and communi- 
cable to the cattle of the elevated lands of the same and 
other States in a more fatal form. It is characterized by 
enlarged spleen, profound changes in the blood, escape of 
the blood-elements into the substance of the various tissues 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 105 

and with the urine causing bloody discharges from the kid- 
neys, yellowness of the mucous membranes and fat, great 
prostration and debility. 

Symptoms. There seems to be an incubation of four or 
five weeks, ending in elevated temperature (103° to 107°) 
and followed in five to seven days by dullness, languor, 
drooping head till the nose reaches the ground, arched back, 
hind legs advanced under the belly and bent at the fetlocks, 
cough more or less frequent, muscular trembling about the 
flanks, jerking of the neck muscles, heat of horns, ears, and 
general surface (limbs cold, in exceptional cases) and im- 
paired appetite and rumination. Soon weakness compels 
lying down, by choice in water, eyes are glassy and fixed, 
secretions lessened, dung hard and coated with mucus, or 
with clots of blood, and the urine changes to a deep red or 
black and coagulates on boiling. The mucous membranes 
are of a deep yellow or brown, that of the rectum, seen in 
passing dung, is of a dark red, as in Rinderpest. 

All these symptoms become aggravated, weakness be- 
comes extreme, and the patient dies in a state of stupor, or 
sometimes in convulsions. 

The disease usually passes unnoticed in the Texan cattle, 
but is exceedingly fatal in Northern beasts. 

Contagion takes place through the bowel discharges, and 
roads, pastures, water-courses, etc., become efficient bearers 
of the virus. It is destroyed at once by frost, and has never 
been satisfactorily demonstrated to be conveyed from one 
Northern animal to another. Sucking calves rarely suffer. 
One attack does not protect against another. There is a 
strongly refrangent micrococcus in the bile and blood. Det- 
mers has also found a bacillus. 

Prevention. It should be enforced by United States law 
that no Gulf-coast cattle should be moved north excepting 
after the first frosts of autumn, or before the last frosts of 
spring. Then would the traffic be safe for all the North. 



106 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

The time would vary for the different States, but the ear- 
lier or later traffic for the extreme North should be by direct 
route without intermediate unloading. A general restric- 
tion of this sort, with the expense levied on all the States, 
would be more economical and satisfactory than a supervision 
by each State of its own frontier. 

Treatment should never be called for. It may, however, 
be resorted to with less danger than in the case of a true 
plague. In some cases emollient drinks and enemas, soft 
food, and stimulating fever medicines have been followed 
by recovery. Chlorate of potassa, nitre, iodide of potassium, 
and carbolic acid have evidently been of advantage. "Wet- 
sheet packing, as for Lung-fever, should be beneficial, and 
refrigerant or stimulating diuretics (digitalis, nitre, or ni- 
trous ether), according to the indications of the particular 
case. Peculiarities in different cases would demand a vari- 
ation of treatment. The diet throughout should be of soft 
mashes, and a return to ordinary fibrous aliment made slowly 
and carefully, patients being liable to be cut off by gastro- 
enteritis. 

CANINE MADNESS. BABIES (hYDEOPHOBIA). 

A specific bacteridian disease of the genus canis (dog 
wolf, fox) and the cat, and transmissible by inoculation to 
all the domestic animals and to man. It is marked by dis- 
orders of intellectual, emotional, and nervous functions, al- 
tered habits, irritable temper, optical delusions, spasms of 
the muscles of the eyeballs and throat, paralysis, and more 
or less fever. 

Causes. Inoculation by bite is the usual (almost invari- 
able) cause, yet cases arise also from other channels of con- 
tagion. Season, climate, abuse, privation of water, improper 
food, muzzling, etc., have no effect further than they serve 
to produce a febrile state and hasten the development of 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 107 

the disease when the seeds are already implanted in the sys- 
tem. A constantly increasing mass of testimony points to 
the conclusion that the restraint of an ungovernable sexual 
desire is one cause of the development of the malady, and 
it is even supposed that the maternal instinct has had a sim- 
ilar effect after the puppies have been removed. Males 
chiefly suffer, partly, no doubt, from their special liability 
to common accessory causes, but mainly because the rabid 
dog is far more likely to bite a male than a female. Dowdes- 
well finds a micrococcus in the brain and spinal cord. 

The poison is resident in the saliva and blood, but not 
always in the milk. The saliva of rabid herbivora, om- 
nivora, and men is equally virulent with that of carnivora, 
though in all animals it varies in intensity according to 
the stage of the disease. Of animals bitten by a violently 
rabid dog nearly all contract the disease, whereas among 
men the proportion is five to fifty-five per cent. This ap- 
parent immunity is largely due to the cleaning of the teeth 
on the dress before they reach the skin. 

Incubation varies in dogs from five to eighty days, the 
majority showing symptoms thirty to forty days after the 
bite ; in the horse fifteen to ninety days (usually thirty) ; 
in cattle twenty to thirty days ; sheep twenty to seventy- 
four days ; swine twenty to forty-nine days. In man it 
ranges about the same, exceptional cases extending over 
years being manifestly instances of disease resulting from 
fear, a common occurrence in the human being. 

Symptoms. In the Dog. Any sudden change of habits, 
or instincts — dullness, restlessness, watchfulness, tendency 
to pick up and swallow straws and other small objects, con- 
stant desire to smell or lick the anus or generative organs 
of themselves or others, to lick a stone or other smooth, 
cold object, to rub the throat or chops with the fore paws, 
silent endurance of pain, rubbing or licking of a scar, the 
seat of the bite, liability to sudden passion and attempts 



108 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

to bite at sight of another dog or cat, may be looked on as 
very suspicious, if rabies exists in the country. Soon the 
characteristic howl is omitted. The voice is hoarse, low, 
and muffled, and there is one loud howl, followed by three 
or four more, successively diminishing in force and uttered 
without closing the mouth. Some dogs appear unusually 
fond of their owners and fatally inoculate them by licking 
their hands and face. Others turn the head and eyes as if 
following imaginary objects and snap as if at flies. Bark- 
ing without object, a constant searching, or tearing of wood, 
etc., to pieces, a seeking of darkness and seclusion and a 
disposition to resent disturbance, or a pilgrimage of several 
days' absence from home are among the most common pre- 
cursors of the disease. 

Furious Rabies. Following some of the above symptoms 
there is a redness and fixed glare in the eyes, squinting, 
rolling of the eyes after fancied objects, more frequent 
howling, and increasing irritability with a tendency to 
worry all animals that come in their way, the respect for, 
and immunity of former friends being lost in the violence 
of a paroxysm. The victim can no longer rest, but under- 
takes long journeys at a slouching trot, ready to fly at all 
that cross his path, especially if they make any noise or 
outcry. He may die during one of these journeys, or re- 
turn dirty, careworn, and sullen, with the rabid glare in his 
eye and ready to resent any interference. Each paroxysm 
of violence or wandering is followed by a period of depres- 
sion and torpor proportionate to the preceding excitement, 
during which dark and seclusion are preferred, though any 
disturbance will arouse to violence. From the fourth to 
the eighth day paralysis sets in, first in the hind limbs, then 
in the jaw and the whole body, the certain precursor of ap- 
proaching death. 

Paralytic Babies. In this case paralysis with dropping 
of the lower jaw is shown at the outset, and gradually ex- 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 109 

tends to the whole body. The animal cannot bite, eat, nor 
drink, rarely barks, and dies early. 

Lethargic {Tranquil) Rabies. Palsy of the jaw is less 
marked, but there is complete apathy, the patient remain- 
ing curled up in one position, and is not to be roused by 
any effort. He becomes daily more emaciated and dies in 
ten to fifteen days. 

In addition to these typical forms there are others hold- 
ing an intermediate place. The furious form is especially 
common in bulldogs, hounds, and the less domesticated 
varieties, the paralytic and tranquil in the house and pet 
dogs. 

Popular Fallacies. I name these because of the evil re- 
sults of entertaining them. 1. Mad dogs have no fear of 
water {hydrophobia). On the contrary, they swim rivers, 
plunge their noses in water or lap their urine without hesi- 
tation. 2. Appetite is not lost, only depraved, and the 
stomach after death is found to contain an endless variety 
of improper objects. 3. There is rarely froth at the mouth, 
though saliva may run from it when the jaw is paralyzed. 
4. The tail is not carried between the legs but is rather 
held erect during a paroxysm. 

Foxes and wolves have symptoms like those of the dog, 
the animals losing their natural shyness or fear, and attack- 
ing man and beast indiscriminately. Cats attack with claws 
and teeth, flying at the face and hands, and utter hoarse 
loud cries, as in heat. The horse bites, kicks, neighs, draws 
his yard, rolls his eyes, jerks his muscles, and dies paralyzed. 
The mischievous propensity distinguishes from delirium. 
The ox is restless, excitable, everts the upper lip, grinds 
his teeth, bellows loudly and as if in terror, scrapes with 
his fore feet, and butts and kicks all who approach. 
There is jerking of the muscles and finally paralysis. 
Sheep are similarly excited, show sexual appetite, stamp, 
butt, and bleat hoarsely. They die paralytic. Swine are 
10 



110 The Farmer 's Veterinary Adviser. 

excitable, restless, grunt hoarsely, champ the jaws, bite in- 
truders, tear objects to pieces, gape, yawn, become weak 
and die paralytic. 

Recoveries are extremely rare. 

Treatment This can only be warranted in the lower 
animals in hope of discovering a curative method for man, 
and then with extreme precautions and in iron cages. 
Theoretically, vapor baths, with sulphites and antispas- 
modics (datura, atropia, chloral-hydrate, etc.), would 
promise the best results. The boasted curative agents have 
all broken down when tried on well-marked cases in the 
lower animals, in which diseases of the imagination are not 
to be looked for. 

Prevention. When bitten, at once check the flow of 
blood from the part, in the limb by a handkerchief or 
cord with a piece of wood through it twisted tightly around 
the member a little higher than the wound, — in other parts 
by sucking, or by cutting open the wound to its depth and 
squeezing or wringing as if milking to keep up a free flow 
of blood, soaking it meanwhile in warm water if available. 
Drinking liquids to excess will also retard absorption. But 
as soon as caustics can be had apply them thoroughly to all 
parts of the wound, making sure that its deepest recesses 
are reached. The compression by handkerchief or fingers 
should not be relaxed until this operation is completed. A 
hot skewer, nail, or poker serves admirably, and if at a 
white heat is less painful. But oil of vitriol, spirit of salt, 
nitric acid, caustic potassa or soda, butter of antimony, 
chloride of zinc, nitrate of silver, blue stone, copperas, in- 
deed any caustic at hand should be at once employed. The 
wound should be thoroughly cauterized, though some time 
has elapsed since the bite, as absorption does not always 
take place at once. 

All dogs should be registered, taxed, and furnished with 
a collar bearing their own and their owner's names and 



Specific Contagious Diseases. Ill 

that of their residence. During the existence of rabies in 
a country all clogs found at large unmuzzled should be de- 
stroyed. Suspected dogs should be shut up under super- 
vision for three months unless rabies is developed earlier. 
Dogs that have bitten human beings should be similarly 
shut up for a week to test the existence of the disease or 
otherwise. 

Pasteur's method of rendering the system insusceptible 
is by preserving the spinal cord of a rabid animal in a 
sterilized bottle, with free access of air, but protected against 
all germs by a filter of sterilized cotton- wool, until inocula- 
tion with its substance is no longer fatal. Beginning with 
this, say twelve days old, he inoculates his patient and the 
following day he operates again using virus which has been 
kept one day less, and so on daily, using the progressively 
stronger virus until he has inoculated with that of the full 
strength. A number of recent failures have led him to 
adopt his intensive method, by which this series of inocula- 
tions is practically repeated several times. That the process 
is generally protective must be acknowledged, as otherwise 
all his subjects must have died of the last and strongest 
virulent injection, whereas less than one per cent, have ac- 
tually perished. On the other hand, to laud such protection 
as constant and absolute is to contradict all that we know 
of acquired vital resistance to specific disease-poisons, and 
is to contradict the results of Pasteur's own inoculations. 
Add to this that a constant succession of cases must be kept 
up to obtain the requisite amount of virus of the different 
required potencies, and that after the inoculations the sub- 
jects carry away in their bodies the most virulent virus 
that Pasteur has been able to produce, to the danger of any 
other susceptible animals with which they may come in 
contact, and the method must be held to be pregnant with 
danger. It is a notorious fact that since Pasteur began in- 
oculating rabies has become extraordinarily prevalent in 



112 The Farmer 's Veterinary Adviser. 

France and England where Lis protected animals have 
mostly gone. 

Galtier found that in rabbits and sheep protection with- 
out visible disease was secured by injecting the rabid saliva 
into the veins without contact with the tissues. 

Fernandez shows, from extensive statistics and numerous 
experiments that dogs bitten by vipers are proof against 
rabies. 

I have had the following results with rabid brain matter, 
sterilized and diffused in water : English terrier had three 
injections of twenty drops each on successive days, then in- 
oculated with virulent matter on the brain ; proved fatal, 
but death delayed till the twenty-fifth day instead of the 
sixteenth. Two rabbits had three hypodermic injections of 
one drachm each on successive days ; afterward inoculated 
with virulent brain matter, but resisted for nine months. 
One rabbit after four injections of one drachm each of steril- 
ized rabid brain matter, inoculated with fresli rabid brain 
matter, but survived nine months. Three control rabbits 
inoculated with fresh rabid brain matter, one on the brain, 
and two hypodermatically, all died of paralytic rabies, the 
first on the sixteenth day, the second on the seventy-second, 
and the third on the one hundred and eightieth day. In- 
oculation of any kind, however, which demands the propa- 
gation of the germ is not to be commended. 

BACILLAR ANTHRAX. 

A contagious disorder, prevailing in rich, damp localities, 
in herbivora and swine, and communicable by inoculation 
to other animals and to man. It shows itself in many dif- 
ferent forms, all characterized by extreme changes in the 
chemical and vital properties of the blood, breaking down 
of the blood-globules, extravasations of blood or albuminous 
fluids in different parts of the body, with a tendency to 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 113 



gangrene, yellow or brown mucous membranes, enlarge- 
ment or even rupture of the spleen (milt), and a very high 
mortality. The germ is a bacillus viable out of the body 
in damp soils, etc. 

Causes. It is propagated by contagion but tends to die 
out when produced in this way only. It is transmitted by 
contact with the blood, liquid exudations, portions of the 
diseased carcase, fat, skins, hair, wool, bristles, feathers, and 
bowel evacuations, and rarely or not at all through the at- 
mosphere. Simple contact of these matters with the healthy 
skin of a susceptible subject is at times enough to produce 
the disease. The virus is most potent when received from 
an animal still living or only recently dead, and yet may be 
preserved for months in all conditions of climate, tempera- 
ture, and humidity. 

Eating of the flesh of animals killed while suffering in 
this way has often conveyed the disease despite the cooking 
to which it was subjected. Fifteen thousand of the inhab- 
itants of St. Domingo once perished in six weeks from this 
cause, and a whole family was poisoned a few years ago in 
Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The Tartars perish in great num- 
bers from eating their anthrax horses. Mosquitoes and other 
insects with perforating apparatus to the mouth help to com- 
municate it, as nearly all cases in man occur on exposed parts 
of the body, and inoculation of the insects' stomachs has 
caused the disease. 

Its preservation in a locality is determined : 1. By the 
rich surface soil abounding in organic matter, and the im- 
pervious subsoil preventing natural drainage. 2. The fre- 
quent inundations of banks of rivers flowing through level 
countries and the drying up of ponds and lakes leaving much 
organic deposit in their basins. 3. A continuation of warm, 
dry weather, which favors organic emanations from such 
places as the above. 4. A condition of the system of the ani- 
mal predisposing to the reception and growth of the poison, 
10* 



114 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

and consisting in the loading of the blood with plastic or 
waste organic matter, as in overfed plethoric animals, in 
those making flesh most rapidly, in the young and rapidly 
growing, in those rendered unhealthy by overwork, impure 
air, unsuitable food or water. 5. Sudden chills when the 
poison is already present ; hence, extreme variations in the 
temperature of night and day. 6. A close, still atmosphere. 

General Characters. In the typical cases the blood is 
black, tarry, and incoagulable, and in all it shows broken- up 
globules, and microscopic rod-like bodies, bacillus anthracis, 
3.5 fi ( t^qo inch) long, and one-fourth as broad. The spleen, 
lymphatic glands, and liver are enlarged, the mucous mem- 
branes of the stomach and intestines are usually reddened, 
thickened, and softened, and any other part of the body may 
be the seat of bloody or albuminous effusion with a tendency 
to death, decomposition, the extrication of gases in the tis- 
sues and a crackling sound when handled. When it com- 
mences in one point on the surface (malignant pustule) there 
is first an unhealthy eruption of minute blisters, which burst, 
dry up, and become gangrenous, while new blisters appear 
around as the unhealthy action spreads. 

Divisions. The bacillar anthrax may be manifested by 
external disease, or swelling, or without such appearances. 
To the first class belong the carbuncular erysipelas of sheep 
and swine, malignant sore throat of hogs, gloss-anthrax or 
black-tongue, one form of black-quarter or bloody murrain, 
the boil-plague of Siberia, and the malignant pustule of man. 
To the second belong all those forms of the disease in which 
there are the specific changes in the blood, with engorge- 
ment of the spleen, blood-staining, and exudations into inter- 
nal organs, only. 

ANTHRAX WITH EXTERNAL LESIONS. 

(A) In Horses. — (1) Siberian Boil-plague. This is un- 
questionably an anthrax disease, and though named from 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 115 

Siberia is not unknown in other lands. A slight shivering 
and fever are followed by a swelling on the udder, sheath, 
breast, throat, or elsewhere, which rapidly increases, some- 
times to the size of an infant's head. At first soft, it hard- 
ens, assuming a yellow, bacon-like appearance, with red 
streaks and spots. The animals die in twelve or twenty-four 
hours, rarely surviving three days. The blood is in the 
state so characteristic of anthrax, with bacteria, enlarged 
spleen, and sanguineous effusions. In cattle similar tumors 
appear, mainly on the throat, neck, or dewlap, in sheep and 
goats on the bare surfaces and in pigs around the throat. In 
all cases the disease, when conveyed to man, produces the 
blue-pox (malignant pustule). At the outset all cases prove 
fatal ; later, recoveries occur under the local use of cold water, 
or the hot iron or other caustics pushed to the depth of the 
tumor, and mineral acids internally. 

(2) Anthrax with Diffused Local Swellings / Typhus. 
This is usually confounded with the purpura hcemorrhagica, 
which occurs in weak conditions of the body, as a sequel of 
debilitating diseases (influenza, bronchitis, pneumonia, etc.). 
Our limits forbid extended treatment, hence the general 
symptoms will be named, and the observer left to distinguish 
the two diseases according to their origin, communicability, 
and prevalence. 

Symptoms. Shivering, lassitude, stupor, impaired appe- 
tite, whitish discharge from the nose, accelerated pulse and 
breathing, costiveness with slimy dung or scouring, high- 
colored, odorous, or bloody urine, swellings the size of a 
walnut or closed fist on different parts of the body, or a 
continuous swelling beneath the chest and belly, or extreme 
engorgement of the limbs or head. These are at first hot 
and tender, and easily indented with the finger, but soon be- 
come hard, the skin gets rigid and exudes drops of a yellow 
serum or pure blood. They may render the patient unable 
to walk, see, feed, drink, urinate, or breathe, according to 



116 The Farmer 's Veterinary Adviser. 

situation. The mucous membranes become swelled, puffy, 
dusky or yellow, with red spots and streaks, and a viscid, 
bloody, and finally foetid discharge flows from the nose. 
Breathing may become labored and quick in connection with 
exudations into the chest, or violent colics may supervene 
from effusions in the abdomen. With internal effusions 
death ensues in forty-eight hours, with external only, the ef- 
fects may last for weeks or months before ending in recovery 
or death. In the latter case the swellings may suddenly dis- 
appear to reappear elsewhere, they may subside permanently 
in connection with free action of the bowels or kidneys, or they 
may slough, leaving extensive and sluggish sores and scars. 

(B) In the Ox. — (1) Black Tongue / also in the Horse. 
This is manifested by the eruption of blisters, red, purple, or 
black, on the tongue, palate, and cheeks, increasing individ- 
ually often to the size of a lien's egg, bursting, discharging 
an ichorous, irritating fluid, and forming unhealthy sores 
with more or less tumefaction. There is a bloody discharge 
from the mouth, active fever sets in, and death ensues in 
twenty-four to forty-eight hours. 

(2) Black-quarter ; Bloody Murrain. This is some- 
times anthrax, with extensive engorgement of a shoulder, 
quarter, neck, breast, or side. It is most frequent in young 
and rapidly thriving stock, attacking first the finest of the 
herd or those thriving most rapidly, and runs its course so 
quickly that its victims are usually found dead in the field as 
the first indication of anything amiss. If seen during life 
there are the general symptoms of plethora, fever, with halt- 
ing on one limb, stiffness, and excessive tenderness of some 
parts of the skin, to be promptly followed by swelling of 
such parts, with yellow or bloody oozing from the surface. 
These swellings become firm, tense, insensible, and even cold, 
and if the subject survives may finally slough open and leave 
large, unsightly, and inactive sores. Recoveries are the ex- 
ception and too often slow and tedious. 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 117 

(C) In Sheep. — Carbuncular Erysipelas. This strongly 
resembles black-quarter of cattle. Like that it attacks the 
finest of the flock and the bodies of its victims are found 
dead in the field. There is first halting on a limb, then a 
red or violet swelling, beginning inside the leg and rapidly 
extending over the body. The feeling, appearance and 
course of the swelling agree with those of black-quarter 
and death occurs in a few hours, or in exceptional cases in 
two days. 

(D) In Swine. — These suffer from Anthrax of the Mouth 
comparable to black-tongue, carbuncular erysipelas, like 
that of the sheep, pharyngeal anthrax, and tumors about the 
throat, which sometimes, at least, have the anthrax char- 
acters. 

(1) The Carbuncular Erysipelas has been constantly con- 
founded in systematic veterinary works with swine-plague, 
but is a distinct disease, being derivable from other anthrax 
patients and communicable to other genera of animals and 
to man, whereas hog-cholera is mainly confined to swine. 

(2) Malignant Sore-throat • Pharyngeal Anthrax. This 
is perhaps the most frequent form of the disease in swine, 
often appearing to arise from eating the carcasses or ex- 
cretions of other anthrax animals. There is active fever 
with redness and swelling of the throat, neck, breast, and 
even the fore limbs. This is at first hard, elastic, warm, 
and tender, but becomes purple, cool, insensible, and pits on 
pressure. There is loss of appetite, retching, vomitino-, 
purple patches and black spots on the eyes, snout, and skin, 
difficult breathing through the mouth, livid tongue, de- 
creasing temperature, great weakness, and death in one or 
two days. 

(3) In the guttural tumors the swelling is circumscribed 
to the size of a kidney-bean or egg, on one or both sides 
of the throat, extending to involve the throat generally, 
causing vomiting, difficult breathing and swallowing, the 



118 The Farmer 's Veterinary Adviser. 

general symptoms of anthrax, and death from suffocation 
often under twenty-four hours. It attacks pigs of five or 
six months. 

(E) In Dogs and Cats. — These suffer when they have eaten 
the carcasses of anthrax victims. The disease usually lo- 
calizes itself in the mouth, throat, and digestive organs, 
giving rise to bloody vomiting and purging, with high fe- 
ver and often death. 

(F) Bieds suffer from the primary disease and more 
frequently from eating the debris of anthrax victims. The 
susceptibility of birds is slight, but may be easily developed 
by a chill or other cause of low vitality and lessened power 
of resistance. In addition to the fever, characteristic 
swellings appear mainly on the comb, beak, and feet. 

(G) In Man. — Malignant Pustule. There is itchiness of 
the affected part, with a minute red spot, increasing in 
twelve or fifteen hours to the size of a millet-seed, bursting 
and drying with a livid appearance in thirty-six hours. 
Next day a new crop of vesicles surround the seat of the first 
and p*ass through the same course, to be succeeded by an- 
other and still wider ring. The whole is surrounded by a 
puffy, shining swelling, the central dry part passes through 
the shades of red, blue, brown, and black, becomes gan- 
grenous and insensible and in case of recovery is sloughed 
off. At first the disease is quite local, but as it advances a 
violent fever sets in, which too often proves fatal. 

Bacillar Anthrax without External Swellings. 

Apoplectic Form. In all animals there is a form in which 
the victim is cut off after a few minutes' illness, with or 
without discharge of blood from the natural openings of 
the body and before time has been allowed for any of 
those changes in the blood and internal organs which char- 
acterize the disease. These are often to be distinguished 
from apoplectic seizures and sunstroke only by their occur- 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 119 

rence simultaneously with other forms of anthrax and in 
the same places. 

Anthrax Fever in Horses. Vigorous health is replaced 
by dullness, muscular weakness, stupor, hanging on the 
halter, leaning on the side of the stall, if at work unsteady 
movement, colicky pains, lying down and rising, turning 
the head toward the flank. The hair is dry and erect, the 
hide tense, and may even crepitate on handling ; the skin 
trembles or sweats about the ears, elbows, or thighs. The 
eyes and nose assume a yellow or reddish or brownish- 
yellow tinge, with oftentimes dark red or black spots. The 
pulse is weak, the heart's impulse behind the left elbow 
strong, breathing labored or quick and catching. A frothy, 
bloody fluid may appear at the nose. The bowels are costive, 
the dung covered with mucus, or loose with streaks of blood. 
The rectum, everted, is of a dark red and puffy. Great 
weakness comes on and the patient dies in convulsions or 
during the subsequent calm. Death usually occurs in 
twelve to twenty-four hours. 

Anthrax Fever in Oxen/ Splenic Apoplexy. The*patient 
ceases feeding and ruminating or does so irregularly, trem- 
bles, has partial sweats, staring coat, varying heat of the 
body, arched back, quarters rested on the stall or fence, 
or lies with the head turned to the flank. A high tem- 
perature (105° to 107°) precedes the outward symptoms by 
hours or days. The eye is sunken, dull, watery, with the 
shades of brown and yellow, and dark spots, remarked in 
the horse ; breathing hurried, heart's action violent, pulse 
weak, loins and back tender or even crepitating, urine 
bloody, bloody liquids escape from nose, anus, or eyes, and 
the dung is streaked with blood. As the disease advances 
the temperature of the body decreases and the patient dies 
in convulsions or quietude, or makes a rapid recovery. The 
fatal result usually takes place in from twelve to twenty- 
four hours. 



120 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

Anthrax Fever in Sheep; Blood- striking ; Braxy. Is 
very promptly fatal, the dead and already foetid carcasses 
being usually found in the morning though the flock was 
apparently well at night. The black, tarry blood brighten- 
ing very slowly on exposure, the enlarged spleen and mesen- 
teric glands, the red, puffy, softened membrane of the 
bowels, and the bloody and gelatinous exudations show the 
true nature of the disease. AVhen seen during life there 
are signs of plethora, fever, red eyes, costiveness, bloody, 
mucous dung, bloody urine, colicky pains, unsteady gait, 
breathlessness when driven, flattened fleece, deep-snnken 
eyes, stupor, convulsions, and speedy death. Many cases 
of so-called braxy are not communicable to other animals, 
hence not genuine anthrax. 

Anthrax Fever in Swine. There are dullness, thirst, in- 
appetence, a tardy, unsteady gait, hot, pendent ears, droop- 
ing tail, deep, dull brownish-red eyes, hurried breathing, 
small pulse, violent heart's action, and tense, tender abdo- 
men. Nervous tremors, twitching, or cramps come on, the 
body cools, bloody urine is passed and sometimes bloody 
dung. Dark or black spots appear on the skin and mucous 
membranes, as in hog-cholera, and if the animal survives, 
these are sloughed off, often leaving sores. If swelling- 
appears externally it is often a herald of improvement. 

Anthrax Fever in Birds. There is inappetence, ruffling 
of plumage, sinking of the head in the shoulders, foetid 
diarrhoea, drooping, trailing wings, tenderness to the touch, 
muscular weakness, unsteady walk, inability to perch, livid 
or black comb and wattles. Sometimes the feathers drop 
off and swellings appear about the head, throat, or feet. 

Treatment of Bacillar Anthrax. 

This is unsatisfactory, owing to the rapidly fatal action 
of the poison. The first cases usually die, the later ones 
may often be treated with fair success. 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 121 

General Treatment. In very plethoric subjects bleeding 
may prove beneficial at the outset, but in advanced stages, 
in poor and weak subjects, and in those with feeble con- 
stitutions, like sheep, it is to be strongly condemned. Act 
on the bowels, kidneys, and skin to eliminate the poison 
(sulphates of soda, or magnesia, acetate, nitrate, or tartrate 
of potassa, common salt, oil of turpentine). Sponge with 
cold water and rub actively till dry. E,ub with camphor- 
ated spirit or oil of turpentine. Give tonics (quinia, sali- 
cin, etc.), antiseptics (mineral acids, nitro-muriatic acid, 
tincture of the muriate of iron, chlorate of potassa, car- 
bolic acid, bisulphite of soda, tincture of iodine, iodide of 
potassium, biniodide of mercury, salicylate of soda, bichro- 
mate of potassa). In the Genesee outbreak of 1875 I had 
admirable results from the use of nitro-muriatic acid sixty 
drops, bichromate of potassa three grs., and chlorate of 
potassa two drachms, twice daily by the mouth, and two or 
three drachms of a saturated solution of sulphate of quinia, 
iodide of potassium and bisulphate of soda injected at 
equal intervals beneath the skin. Of fifty very sick oxen 
only four died. 

In the advanced and weak conditions stimulants (alco- 
hol, turpentine, ether, valerian, angelica, camphor, etc.), 
are useful. 

Local Treatment. This is very successful with inocu- 
lated forms of the disease (malignant pustule, boil-plague, 
gloss-anthrax, malignant sore throat) if employed before 
the poison has passed into the system and produced fever. 
For these, free cauterization, and especially with the anti- 
septic caustics (crystallized carbolic acid, the mineral acids, 
chloride of zinc, chloride of iron, sulphate of iron or cop- 
per, tincture of iodine), is successful. But the whole dis- 
eased tissue must be reached, and in the case of the 
tongue the blisters must be first laid open and. the agent ap- 
plied in small quantity with a brush, or more freely in a di- 
ll 



122 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

luted condition. In some external cases the hot iron is used 
with advantage. Such treatment may still be applied to 
circumscribed tumors accompanied by the fever, being fol- 
lowed by poultices to encourage suppuration. 

For extensive engorgements use astringents (cold water, 
vinegar, etc.), weak antiseptic lotions, and, above all, in- 
jections with a hypodermic syringe of antiseptics (diluted 
tincture of iodine, diluted carbolic acid — 1-100, etc.). The 
hypodermic treatment is equally applicable to the circum- 
scribed tumors, but we must saturate their whole substance, 
otherwise absorption of the poison will lead to general dis- 
order. 

Prevention. 1. Drain the soil thoroughly. 2. When a 
soil cannot be drained, soil the stock in-doors or on other 
pastures rather than graze them. 3. Remove the stock 
from pastures known to be dangerous as soon as summer 
heat and dryness of the soil favor malarious emanations 
(late summer and autumn). 4. Shelter the stock at night 
and secure the shade of trees or sheds during the day, 
when, after a hot, dry season, there comes an extreme 
difference between the day and night temperature. 5. Se- 
cure abundance of pure water, avoiding such as is stag- 
nant or putrid. 6. Keep always in good thriving condi- 
tion, and avoid sudden accessions of plethora. Artificial 
feeding in dry times is often necessary to secure this, or, 
in case of an over-luxuriant pasture, seclusion in a barn- 
yard for four or five hours a day. Sheep may be shut 
up on moonlight nights, to prevent feeding, in dangerous 
localities. 7. Overwork, exhaustion, close-aired buildings, 
ill-health, or whatever tends to load the blood with waste 
matter should be avoided. 8. Exposed animals may have a 
little nitro-muriatic, sulphuric, or carbolic acid daily in the 
water or food. 9. Diseased animals must be separated from 
the healthy. ' 10. Carcasses, secretions, dung, litter, etc., 
of diseased animals should be burned or otherwise per- 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 123 

fectly destroyed. Buildings, yards, sheds, etc., occupied by 
the diseased should be thoroughly disinfected. Pastures 
should be abandoned for that season, and graves fenced 
safely from trespass for two years. 11. None but the at- 
tendants should approach the diseased. 12. Before hand- 
ling, cauterize all raw sores on hands or face with lunar caus- 
tic and wash the hands in a weak solution of carbolic 
acid both before and after. 13. Shut up all dogs, cats, 
and pigeons. 14. Never allow the flesh or milk to pass 
into consumption. 

By way of prevention I have had excellent results from 
two hypodermicinjections, at intervals of a week, of a drachm 
of the diseased blood or exudate, after it had been exposed 
for an hour to a temperature of 150° F. Pasteur's method 
of injecting the weakened virus is only permissible on soils 
already charged with the poison. Elsewhere it endangers 
the permanent implanting of the germ in new soil. 

Vibrionic Anthrax. Emphysematous Anthrax. Bloody 
Murrain. Milzbrand-Emphysem. Charbon Symp- 
tomatique. 

From the time of Chabert till recently this has been 
classed with bacillar anthrax, but is now shown to depend 
on a vibrio or motile rod, shorter and broader than that of 
anthrax, rounded at its ends and furnished with a clear re- 
frangent nucleus near one end (rarely in the middle, though 
there may be two, one at each end of a long vibrio). The 
nucleus is easily mistaken for a micrococcus, as the filament 
has the same index of refraction with the surrounding liquid. 
In its active movements too it often presents but one end, 
and thus appears spherical. 

The germ is fatal to guinea-pigs, and in large doses to 
cattle, sheep, and goats, but can be inoculated with difficulty 
only on rabbits, horses, and asses, while dogs, cats, swine, 
and chickens successfully resist it, 



124 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

It is further distinguished from bacillar anthrax, in that 
animals insusceptible to that by reason of a previous attack 
or inoculation are not thereby rendered exempt from vibri- 
onic anthrax. 

The blood is not usually infecting, as it rarely contains 
the germ save in the advanced stages. The vibrio is found 
above all, in the liver, but also in the lymphatic glands, 
spleen, kidney, lung, and intermuscular connective tissue 
when the seat of the exudate. 

The disease is ushered in by high fever and much depres- 
sion, followed in a few hours by a swelling on some part 
of the body, at first soft and doughy, but soon crackling 
under pressure from the formation of gases under the skin. 
The ear laid on the swelling detects a fine crepitating sound 
caused by the bursting of fine bubbles of gas. The surface 
may be the seat of blisters with reddish contents, or it may 
discharge drops of a bloody or straw-colored serum which 
concretes on the surface, and the swelling, at first hot, may 
finally become cold and the skin dry and leathery should 
the animal survive. The skin may, further, crack open or 
slough off, together with part of the tissue beneath, forming 
an indolent, unhealthy sore. More commonly the fever 
advances rapidly, with rapidly increasing weakness and de- 
bility, and death ensues in a period varying from six hours 
to two days. 

It is only in the mildest cases that treatment can be of 
any avail, and then it need not differ materially from that 
advised for bacillar anthrax. The early appearance of the 
general fever would suggest the prompt use of internal 
antiseptics (salicylate of soda, iodide of potassium, quinia, 
bichloride of mercury, biniodide of mercury, bichromate of 
potash). For the local swelling, too, the free use of acid 
astringents (acetic, or hydrochloric acid) largely diluted, 
and antiseptics superficially and by hypodermic injection is 
to be recommended. Internally tincture of muriate of iron, 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 125 

four drachms, every four hours, and locally equal parts of 
tincture of iodine, aqua ammonia, and oil of turpentine 
(Dr. Phares) is very successful. 

By way of 'prevention specific care should be given to 
the young and plethoric as the most susceptible. Keep- 
ing always in good condition and avoiding sudden acces- 
sions of plethora proves very beneficial. ]STo less useful is 
the maintenance of free action of bowels and kidneys, by 
a moderate ration of flaxseed or other laxative. The 
avoidance of night frosts alternating with hot noons, of un- 
wholesome or insufiicient food, of impure water, or, indeed, 
of any cause of debility is desirable. On infected soils the 
avoidance of damp grass, by seclusion in houses at night, or 
even by soiling the cattle altogether, may be resorted to. 
Antiseptics (copperas, carbolic acid, sulphites of soda or 
lime, and iodide of potassium) may be useful. 

It is a common practice on infected lands to insert a seton 
through the dewlap of each of the young cattle, with the 
view of preventing undue plethora. The beneficial result 
is probably rather due to the fact that the germ is planted 
in the wound, where, in connection with active suppuration, 
it produces a mild infection only, the germs remaining con- 
fined to the sore, and the animal recovering enjoys a subse- 
quent immunity. A similar protection may be secured by 
inoculation with a weakened specimen of the virus, or still 
better, by the virus that has been sterilized by heat. 

PYJEMIA. PURULENT INFECTION (BLOOD-POISONING ?). 

It has long been known that in connection with wounds, 
which have become unhealthy or suddenly dried up, a se^ 
vere general fever often sets in, accompanied by the devel- 
opment of abscesses in different parts of the body and early 
death. It is now known that suppuration is usually or al- 
ways associated with the presence in the seat of its forma- 
tion of bacteria, and that, when sec.on4ary abscesses appear 



126 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



in different parts of the body, these micro-organisms are 
constantly found in such parts. Why all suppurations do 
not produce this general infection is not well understood, 
but there is doubtless a varying power of resistance in dif- 
ferent subjects, and a varying potency of the alkaloids and 
other poisons produced by the bacteria under slightly dif- 
ferent conditions of life. The frequent formation of ab- 
scesses filled with these micro-organisms in the deepest and 
most solid tissues of the body, is evidence enough that they 
may exist in an apparently healthy system and only operate 
for serious evil under certain conditions of local or general 
debility. The poison acquires greater potency when grown 
in the body apart from air, as in the generative passages 
after parturition, etc. 

There are various micro-organisms in the different forms 
of suppuration, all of a spherical form, though one is ar- 
ranged in form of a chain. 

Kranzfeld, who has experimented largely on the subject, 
describes, first, those found in groups — Staphylococcus Pyo- 
genes (aureus, albus, and citreus), and second, the chain form, 
Streptococcus Pyogenes. The swelling and suppuration 
caused by the first-named type tend to appear in the seat 
of injury, while those due to the second tend to affect 
the nearest communicating lymphatic glands. Both may 
cause general infection, the abscesses from the first appear- 
ing by preference in the internal organs, and those from 
the second in the joints, marrow of bones (Osteo-myelitis) 
and serous membranes. 

Symptoms. If following on an external wound, the ac- 
cess of fever is usually coincident with a drying of the wound 
and a dark-red, glistening, unhealthy appearance of its sur- 
face. A chill is constant, and following this the body tem- 
perature is high and variable, the breath strong or mawkish 
in odor ; the tongue red, furred ; the teeth covered with in- 
crustations ; the eye sunken, hopeless ; there may be diar- 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 127 

rhcea or bleeding from the nose, and soon there are indica- 
tions of the formation of the secondary abscesses in the 
lymphatic glands, joints, bones, or internal organs. Pyaemia 
does not at once follow a surface wound, but usually appears 
a week or two later, after suppuration has been freely estab- 
lished. 

Treatment, Prevention. The treatment of pyaemia is so 
generally unsatisfactory that attention should rather be 
given to prevention. At the same time antiseptics (sulphate 
or muriate of quinia, salicylate of soda, hyposulphite of soda, 
benzoate of soda, etc.) may be given, together with elimi- 
nating diuretics, and stimulants. Secondary abscesses should 
be opened, and dressed with antiseptics. Its prevention is 
to be sought mainly in avoidance of injuries, and in the 
maintenance of a pure antiseptic atmosphere, for surgical 
patients especially. Filthy stables, with close, polluted cavi- 
ties under the floor, rotten woodwork and soft brick charged 
with all manner of septic products, is but an invitation to 
this class of diseases (pyaemia, septicaemia, erysipelas, sep- 
tic puerperal fever, etc.), while perfect cleanliness, pure air, 
and antiseptic dressings for wounds are the best antidotes. 
A dressing of carbolic acid (1 part to 50 parts of water or 1 
to 15 of vaseline), or of bichloride of mercury (1 part to 
5,000 water), covered by a thick layer of absorbent cotton 
also charged with the same dressing, and dried, may fail to 
exclude germs from the wound, but will rarely fail to retard 
their growth and keep them from attaining a dangerous 
development. 

SEPTICAEMIA. SEPTIC INFECTION (BLOOD-POISONING). 

This is the exact counterpart of pyaemia, the tissue or the 
system at large being poisoned by the entrance of septic 
bacteria or their poisonous products. Like pyaemia, also, it 
is not dependent on one invariable micro-organism, but in 
different cases depends on distinct germs, giving rise to more 



128 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

or less variable symptoms. It is, therefore, in its causation 
not one disease, but rather a group of allied diseases, and 
this is one reason why one attack will not necessarily pro- 
tect against a second. 

Among the micro-organisms may be named a micrococcus 
of septicaemia in rabbits, fowls, rats, and gninea-pigs ; a mi- 
crococcus from the mouths of certain men, fatal to rabbits ; 
two bacilli of septicaemia in the mouse, 1.6 fi (y^-jr o - mcn ) 
and 1 /a (jjttq- i ncn ) i n length. It is clear that different 
germs are present in different cases and in different animals, 
and that a germ proving fatal to one genus of animal is 
often comparatively harmless to another genus. As in the 
case of pyaemia, ill-health, an impure condition of the blood 
and animal fluids, foul, close atmosphere, overcrowding of 
patients, and a special potency of the poison, from previous 
growth in given media, and above all in the animal body, 
strongly conduce to an attack. 

Septicaemia may appear at any time, from the moment of 
the infliction of a. poisoned wound to any stage of its pro- 
gress, whereas pyaemia occurs only after the onset of suppu- 
ration. Again it may remain exclusively local or it may 
produce at once general fever with little local inflammation 
and destroy the patient in two to four days. The differ- 
ence depends largely on the varying strength of the poison 
and on the difference in the power of resistance in different 
individuals. The local form affects, especially, the lym- 
phatic vessels, giving rise to local, boggy, dark-red swelling, 
and in white, delicate skins to a branching redness, lead- 
ino- along the lines of the lymphatics and veins. It appears 
to be generally through these lymphatics that the poison 
enters .the blood to produce the constitutional disease, 
whereas in micrococcus pyaemia the distribution appears to 
take place mainly through the veins, and in tire substance 
of minute floating blood-clots. 

Septicaemia usually sets in without a chill, but sequent to 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 129 

a putrid state of the wound. The body temperature runs 
very liigb, lowering, sometimes even to the natural, especi- 
ally in the morning, but only to rise again, and it becomes 
abnormally low only in the last stages. The wound becomes 
of a dark red with dirty grayish spots and black edges. 
The breath is mawkish or fetid, the mouth dry, thirst ar- 
dent, skin moist but without free perspirations, mucous 
membranes dusky yellow ; expression of countenance dull, 
listless, stupid, heartless, and there is much muscular weak- 
ness or lethargy. A very offensive, watery diarrhoea is a 
marked symptom ; and vomiting may occur in pigs and car- 
nivora. 

There is no tendency to secondary abscesses, and after 
death there may be little change, save enlarged, engorged 
spleen, softened liver, and an incoagulable condition of the 
blood. The blood of pyaemia coagulates firmly. 

Though occurring separately pyaemia and septicaemia often 
co-exist, when the symptoms of both diseases are combined. 

Treatment is not satisfactory in the general disorder, 
though it consists in support by antiseptic tonics (quinia, 
salicin) and alcoholic stimulants. The mineral acids (mu- 
riatic, nitro-muriatic) are also febrifuge, and general anti-fer- 
ments (salicylate of soda, hyposulphite of soda, etc.) may 
be resorted to. [Nourishing feeding, and pure air are, above 
all, important. 

For the wound, lotions of antiseptics — hyposulphite of 
soda, permanganate of potash, carbolic acid, chloride of zinc, 
chlorinated soda, boro-glycerine, etc. — may be freely used in 
the form of lotion on sterilized cotton. 

Prevention is essentially the same as for pyaemia, which 
see. In no case should an operation be performed On a 
subject in a low state of health, as the system is then much 
more open to attack, and no surgical patient should be kept 
in an impure atmosphere. 

(For Erysipelas see Skin Diseases.) 



130 The Farmers Veterinary Adviser. 



BIKD CHOLERA. CHICKEN CHOLERA. 

This is one of the most destructive of our indigenous ani- 
mal plagues, and causes greater losses in the United States 
than can be well conceived of, considering the relatively low- 
value of the individual animal. The susceptibility is not 
confined to chickens, though, as usually seen, it proves espec- 
ially destructive to these. By inoculation Renault conveyed 
it in fatal form to pigeons, ducks, geese, and parrots, and 
during its prevalence in a district we frequently see dead 
thrushes and other wild birds manifest victims of the same 
infection. Renault and Toussaint have conveyed it in fatal 
form to rabbits ; and the latter, supported by recent German 
observers, considers it identical with rabbit septicaemia, so 
that rats and mice must be added to the susceptible list. 
Renault inoculated both dog and horse, with fatal result, but 
Toussaint found that in horse, ass, dog, and sheep inocula- 
tions produced local swelling and abscess with much consti- 
tutional disturbance, but the blood did not become virulent 
and recovery ensued. 

The germ is a slightly ovoid micrococcus found in the dis- 
charges and in the blood. It is evident that infection may be 
conveyed by birds, wild and tarne, by rabbits, rats, and mice. 
In the summer season it is also propagated by insects. 

Symptoms; Course. Inoculation is variable, averaging 
five to eight days, and proving shortest in winter. 

The bird becomes dull, listless, trails its wings, drags its 
limbs, sits a great deal, head sunken between the wings, and 
feathers ruffled. It seeks sunshine, and if several suffer they 
huddle together for heat. Temperature rises to 109°. 
Appetite is lost, but thirst continues, and abundant yellowish 
or yellowish-green discharges are passed, with in some cases 
a whitish flow from the bill and nostrils. The comb and 
wattles become flaccid, and of a dark livid or blue color, 
at first in spots and later throughout, weakness and prostra- 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 131 

tion advance rapidly and death ensues after two or three 
days of illness. In the later stages of an epizootic, the 
deaths are delayed by several days and a considerable pro- 
portion recover. 

Treatment is not satisfactory, though the use of antisep- 
tics (sulphuric, benzoic, or salicylic acid, chloride of lime, car- 
bolic acid) in the water may be resorted to. 

Prevention has not been secured through inoculation with 
sterilized virus, but can be attained by using virus so diluted 
that but one or two bacteria are inserted under the skin 
(Salmon), or by the use of virus that has rested inactive in 
free air for three to five months (Pasteur). In either case 
a small slough forms in the skin and muscles around the 
puncture. 

The simplest and cheapest preventive is sulphuric acid of 
a strength of not less than 60 drops to the pound of water 
(1-150) freely sprinkled on the buildings, yards, and feed- 
ing-grounds. When the range is too extensive to sprinkle 
thus, restrict it till it can be, and on the subsidence of the 
outbreak keep up the restriction, or remove the fowls to new 
land. 

ACTINOMYCOSIS. 

This is a parasitic disease of animals and man, caused by 
the growth in the bones or soft tissues of a fungus which 
grows in tufts, consisting of cells converging to a central 
stem, like the seeds of a composite plant (daisy), and appear- 
ing on section to radiate, and hence the name — Actinomyces 
— star fungus. 

The individual tufts may reach the size of a small pin's 
head, and reflect a yellowish color in the midst of a pinkish 
or dirty white soft exudate. The tufts are further extremely 
hard, so that they cannot be cut in slices for the microscope 
until they have been softened in a weak acid. 

The fungus usually invades the interior of the jaw-bone, 
upper or lower, or the soft parts adjacent (tongue, cheeks, 



132 The Fanner's Veterinary Adviser. 

face, throat) bnt is also found in the lungs and other inter- 
nal organs. About the head it seems to start from slight 
sores of the gums or mucous membrane or cavities by the 
side of decaying teeth and to extend slowly into the solid 
tissues. The affected jaw-bone swells out into a large rounded 
mass, and the outer dense bone becoming absorbed before 
the advancing soft growth within, the diseased mass finally 
reaches the surface and gives rise to running sores. This 
was formerly known as "lump-jaw" or " osteo-sarcoma " 
but the presence of the gritty yellow granules in the open 
sores betrays the true nature of the malady. When the 
tongue is attacked the growth takes place as a rounded hard 
swelling which has given rise to the name of wooden tongue. 
As it advances it approaches the surface and forms a raw 
ulcerating sore in which the yellow tufts may be found. At 
times the whole face may be involved, the lips and nostrils 
becoming thick, firm, rigid, and comparatively immovable, 
and the mucous membrane as well as the skin is swollen so 
that breathing is snuffling and difficult. Around the throat 
it forms similar hard resistant swellings, more or less round 
as it invades especially the glands. In the lungs the deposit 
causes modification or loss of the respiratory murmur over 
circumscribed areas, with cough and expectoration, but un- 
less the yellow tufts can be found in the expectoration the 
exact nature of the disease may escape recognition. 

Prevention. — As the fungus appears in grass and grain 
fed animals in omnivora and carnivora, no precautions as to 
diet can be suggested, except the avoidance of very coarse 
fibrous food likely to wound the mouth or throat, and of hard 
flinty corn and other seeds likely to cause injury to the teeth. 
Vegetation grown on pastures where the disease prevails 
should especially be avoided. I have known the affection 
recur in three generations of cattle on the same soil. Dis- 
eased teeth and ulcerated gums which might form a seed- 
bed for the germ should be extracted, filled, or healed. Fi- 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 133 

nally the badly diseased should be promptly destroyed and 
burned or boiled, as they are necessarily important propa- 
gators of the poison. The burning of mangers, racks, and 
other woodwork that may harbor the germ is an obvious 
necessity, and the saturation of floor's with carbolic acid or 
chloride of lime may be resorted to. 

Treatment. — This is only advisable where the disease is 
local and superficial. In the parts about the mouth, and 
even in the jaw-bone, the diseased masses may be scooped 
out with a knife and the cavities stuffed with iodized carbo- 
lic acid. This we have known to succeed even where the 
enormous jaw-bone was hollowed out in many great cavities 
opening alike externally and into the mouth. 



» 



MILK SICKNESS. " THE TREMBLES. 

A specific infectious disease peculiar to some unimproved 
agricultural districts in Ohio, North Carolina, and other 
States, usually occurring in cattle, and communicable 
through meat, milk, and cheese to warm-blooded animals 
generally. A spirillum existing in the blood has been de- 
scribed as the specific germ. 

Symptoms. In cows in full milk the disease is said to 
be productive of scarcely any constitutional disorder, the 
poison being eliminated by the milk and proving very fatal 
to the consumers. In cattle that do not yield milk, and in 
other animals, the symptoms are torpid bowels, trembling, 
great muscular weakness, swaying in the walk, inappetence, 
drooping head and eyelids, utter listlessness and stupidity, 
some fever, and rapidly advancing debility and marasmus. 
In man the moral sense is practically abolished as a mani- 
festation of the general hebetude, and after death the large 
intestines are found blocked with dry concretions not unlike 
sawdust. 

The malady has been attributed to rhus and other vege- 
table poisons, and to nickel among the mineral products, 
12 



134 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

but the conveyance of the affection through a quantity of 
milk so small as that used in a coffee-cup, and the trans- 
mission of the disease through successive subjects, argues 
the multiplication of a living organism in the system. 

The malady usually disappears with the clearing of the 
forest and cultivation of the soil, and is chiefly important 
in that the meat, milk, butter, or cheese furnished by the 
infected animals may be sold and shipped to distant parts 
of the country to find human victims in the large cities un- 
less due care is taken to prevent it. 

GLANDERS AND FARCY. 

A specific bacteridian disorder originating in solipeds, 
and transmissible by contagion or inoculation to dogs, cats, 
goats, sheep, swine, rabbits, and men. Glanders is char- 
acterized by a peculiar deposit with ulceration on the mem- 
brane of the nose, and in the lungs, etc., and farcy by 
deposits of the same material and ulcerations of the lym- 
phatics of the skin. Each has its acute and chronic form. 
The acute form usually results from inoculation, or in weak 
and worn-out systems. Besides the common cause — conta- 
gion — overwork, exhausting diseases, and impure air are 
especially injurious. The specific germ is a bacillus. 

Symptoms of Acute Glanders. Languor, dry, staring 
coat, red, weeping eyes, impaired appetite, accelerated pulse 
and breathing, yellowish-red or purple streaks or patches 
in the nose, watery nasal discharge, with sometimes painful 
dropsical swellings of the limbs or joints. Soon the nasal 
flow becomes yellow and sticky, causing the hairs and skin 
of the nostrils to adhere together, and upon the mucous 
membrane appear yellow elevations with red spots, passing 
on into erosions and deep ulcers of irregular form and 
varied color, and with little or no tendency to heal. The 
lymphatic glands inside the lower jaw, where the pulse is 
felt, become enlarged, hard and nodular, like a mass of peas 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 135 

or beans, and are occasionally firmly adherent to the skin, 
the tongue, or the jaw-bone. The lymphatics on the face 
often rise as firm cords. An occasional cough is heard and 
auscultation detects crepitation or wheezing in the chest. 
The ulcers increase in number and depth, of ten invading the 
gristle or even the bone, the glands also enlarge but remain 
hard and nodular, the discharge becomes bloody, fetid, and 
so abundant and tenacious as to threaten or accomplish suf- 
focation, and the animal perishes in the greatest distress. 

Symptoms of Chronic Glanders. This is characterized 
by the same unhealthy deposits and ulcers in the nose, 
varying extremely in size and number, often, indeed, situ- 
ated too high to be seen ; by the same viscid discharge, but 
usually much less tenacious than in the acute form ; by the 
same hard, comparatively insensible nodular glands on the 
inner side of the jaw-bone ; and a cough, which, however, 
is much more rare. Excepting at the very outset, the ani- 
mal usually appears to be in the best of health, with the 
apparently insignificant drawback of the nasal discharge, 
and hence he is often kept and used till he contaminates a 
number of horses or even men. The case is easily recog- 
nized unless where the ulcers are invisible or the enlarged 
glands removed. It is sometimes needful to inoculate a use- 
less animal to decide as to the nature of the malady. It usu- 
ally proves fatal to the inoculated animal in about ten days. 

Symptoms of Acute Farcy. The premonitory symptoms 
resemble those of acute glanders, of which it is but another 
manifestation. The local symptoms consist in thickening 
of the lymphatic vessels, which feel like stout cords, painful 
to pressure ; and the formation of rounded inflammatory 
swellings (farcy-buds) along the course of these corded 
lymphatics. There follow ulceration of these buds, raw 
sores, discharging a glairy, unhealthy pus, and dropsical 
engorgement of the limb or other part affected. It is usu- 
ally seen to follow the line of the veins on the inner side of 



13f) T lie Farmers Veterinary Adviser. 

the hind or fore limb, but may appear on any part. The 
cording usually extends from the feet toward the body, and 
is most likely to be confounded with lymphangitis, in which 
the swelling begins high up in the groin. It usually proves 
fatal, becoming complicated with glanders before death. 

Symptoms of Chronic Farcy. This may follow the acute 
form or come on insidiously. First there is some swelling 
of a fetlock, usually a hind one, and a round, hard, nut-like 
mass may be felt, which gradually softens, bursts, and dis- 
charges the characteristic serous or glairy matter. The 
lymphatics leading up from it meanwhile become corded, 
and farcy-buds appear along their course. Or the round, 
pea-like buds appear first on the inner side of the hock, or 
on some other part of the body, soften, burst and discharge 
before any cording of the lymphatics can be felt. 

By-and-by, dropsical swellings appear in the limbs and 
elsewhere, at first soft and removable by exercise, later, hard 
and permanent. Sometimes the farcy-buds fail to soften, 
but remain hard and indolent for months. 

Glanders in the dog is a comparatively mild affection, but 
as deadly if it is conveyed back to the horse or to man. 
Glanders in man presents the same general symptoms as in 
the horse, and need not be further described. 

Treatment of Glanders. The acute disease is fatal. The 
chronic form occasionally appears to recover, though more 
commonly the symptoms are covered up to reappear when- 
ever the animal is put to hard work. The treatment of 
glanders in all its forms and of acute farcy with open sores 
should be legally prohibited, because of the danger to man 
as well as animals. 

For glanders the most successful agents have been ar- 
seniate of strychnia (5 grs.), bisulphite of soda (2 drs.), 
biniodide of copper (1 dr.), cantharides (5 grs.), with vege- 
table tonics, sulphate of copper (6 drs. in mucilage), sul- 
phate of iron (4 drs.), chloride of barium, copaiva, cubebs, 



/Specific Contagious Diseases. 137 

etc. Pure air and rich food are perhaps even more impor- 
tant. To the nose may be applied sulphur fumes, fumes of 
burning tar, carbolic acid solution in spray, etc. The en- 
larged glands may be treated with astringent solutions, and 
later with iodine injections, or may even be excised with 
the knife. 

Treatment of Chronic Farcy. Active local inflammation 
may demand a purgative (aloes), diuretics (iodide of potassi- 
um), with warm fomentations or astringent lotions, exercise, 
and a soft, non-stimulating diet. In the absence of such 
indication use the tonics advised for glanders, choosing in 
the order named. The corded lymphatics and unbroken 
farcy-buds may be blistered or rubbed with iodine or mercu- 
rial ointment. The raw sores should be treated with caustics 
(carbolic acid, nitrate of silver, corrosive sublimate, chloride 
of zinc, or even the hot iron). Use iodine, diuretics, exer- 
cise, rubbing, etc., to reduce the swelling, and feed liberally. 

Prevention. 1. Destroy all glandered horses, and all 
with acute farcy and open sores, and bury deeply. 2. 
There should be a high penalty attached to the exposing of 
glandered horses in public places. 3. Suspected animals 
should be secluded under veterinary supervision until they 
can be pronounced sound, or destroyed. 4. The stable, 
manure, litter, harness, clothing, utensils, etc., with which 
the diseased has come in contact should be thoroughly dis- 
infected. 5. Neither strange animals nor men should be 
admitted, and attendants should disinfect before leaving. 
6. Horses should be protected as far as possible from ex- 
hausting work, chronic wearing-out affections and above all 
impure and rebreathed air. 

VENEREAL DISEASE OF SOLIPEDS. 

This is a curious disease of unknown origin, existing in 
Arabia, North Africa, and Continental Europe, bearing a 
strong resemblance in many points to Syphilis, and prop- 
13* 



138 The Farmer 's Veterinary Adviser. 

agated by copulation. I name it here because of the 
probability of its importation with European or Arabian 
horses. (It is already reported in Percherons, in Illinois 
and Montana.) 

Symptoms. From one to ten days after copulation, or 
in the stallion sometimes after some weeks, there is irri- 
tation, swelling, and a livid redness of the external organs 
of generation (in stallions the penis may shrink), followed 
by unhealthy ulcers which appear in successive crops, often 
with considerable interval. In mares these are near the 
clitoris, which is frequently erected, with switching and rub- 
bing of the tail ; in horses on the penis and sheath. In the 
milder forms there is little constitutional disturbance and 
the patients recover in a time varying from a fortnight to 
two months. In the severe forms the local swelling in- 
creases by intermittent steps. The vulva is the seat of 
a deep violet congestion and extensive ulceration, pustules- 
appear on the perineum, tail, and between the thighs, 
the lips of the vulva are parted, exposing the irregular, 
nodular, puckered, ulcerated, and lardaceous-looking mu- 
cous membrane, abortion ensues, with emaciation, lameness, 
paralysis, and death after a wretched existence of five 
months to two years. In horses swelling of the sheath 
may be the only symptom for a year, then there may follow 
dark spots of extravasated blood, or swellings of the penis, 
the testicles may swell, a dropsical engorgement extends 
forward beneath the abdomen and chest, the Lymphatic 
glands in different parts of the body may swell, pustules 
and ulcers appear on the skin, the eyes and nose run, a 
weak and vacillating movement of the hind limbs gradually 
increases to paralysis, and in a period varying from three 
months to three years death puts an end to the suffering. 

It is needless to speak of treatment. This disease ought 
to be stamped out at once, as its insidious nature enables it 
to spread to the great destruction of stock. 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 139 



TUBERCULOSIS. CONSUMPTION. PINING. 

This is a specific bacteridian affection, due to a bacillus, and 
characterized by a specific deposit of cells, large and small, 
in a special network, but without blood-vessels. It is situ- 
ated by preference in the groups of lymphatic glands, or in 
the microscopic gland-like tissue of the different organs, and 
may be seen in all stages, from the simple redness and con- 
gestion in which the deposit is only commencing, through 
the solid grayish tubercle to the soft yellowish, cheese-like 
mass resulting from the softening of the latter. There are 
also the open cavities (vomica) resulting from their rupture 
and discharge of the tuberculous matter, and chalky masses 
from the deposit of earthy salts within them. They may 
be no larger individually than a millet-seed (miliary tuber- 
culosis), or in the chest of cattle one may measure a foot 
long and five or six inches in thickness. They are most 
common in cattle, especially heavy milkers, with long legs, 
narrow chest, attenuated neck and ears, and horns set near 
together. Fowls and swine with a corresponding conforma- 
tion are next in order of liability, while horses, dogs, and 
sheep are comparatively exempt. Oft-repeated experiment 
has shown that tubercle is communicable to healthy animals 
by inoculation, or by eating the raw, diseased product, and 
that it is superinduced in any predisposed individual by set- 
ting up a local inflammation. It has also been transmitted 
by the warm, fresh milk, but probably only when the dis- 
ease has invaded the mammary glands ; in many experi- 
ments, including those conducted by the author, the milk 
has proved harmless. Close, badly-aired buildings (as town 
cow-sheds) are among the most prolific causes of the disease, 
as are also changes to a colder climate, to a cold, exposed 
locality, or from a dry to a low, damp, undrained region. 
Finally, any cause which tends to wear out the general 
health tends to tuberculosis in a predisposed subject. 



140 The Farmer 's Veterinary Adviser. 

Tubercles may be developed in any part of the body, as 
the lungs, their serous covering, the membrane supporting 
the bowels, the coats of the intestines, the throat, the spleen, 
the liver, the pancreas, the ovaries, the kidneys, the bones, 
especially the ends of long bones, and in rare cases, the 
muscles and connective tissue. 

/Symptoms vary according to the seat of the deposit, yet 
there is a constitutional condition common to all, and the 
lungs are almost always involved in the later stages, giving 
rise to a great similarity of symptoms. The disease may be 
acute but is usually chronic. The onset is insidious and 
easily overlooked, tubercles being often found in animals 
killed in prime condition, and I have seen them in parturi- 
tion fever, which is always attributed to plethora. There is 
some dulness, loss of vivacity, tenderness of the withers, 
back, and loins, and of the walls of the chest, occasional dry- 
ness of the nose, heat of the horns and ears, want of pliancy 
in the skin, slightly increased temperature (102°), weak, 
accelerated pulse, mawkish breath, stiffness of the limbs, 
wandering perhaps from one to another, slight, infrequent, 
dry cough, and blue, watery milk, often abundant but with 
cheesy matter, fat, and sugar decreased and soda and potassa 
in excess. The lymphatic glands about the throat are often 
manifestly enlarged. Swellings of the joints may appear, 
or a murmur harsher than natural may be heard over the 
lower end of the windpipe or in the chest. With deposits 
in the abdomen and especially in or near the ovaries of 
cows the desire for the male is often constant (bullers), though 
conception and the completion of gestation are usually im- 
possible. Working oxen are easily overdone and become 
visibly emaciated from day to day. As the disease advances 
the eyes sink in their sockets and lose all animation, the 
skin is hidebound, harsh, dry, and scurfy, the hair dull, dry 
and erect, the membranes of the eyes, nose, and mouth of a 
pale, yellow, bloodless aspect, though often streaked with 



Specific Contagious Diseases. 141 

pink vessels, a whitish discharge often takes place from the 
nose, and with it an increased repulsiveness and often dis- 
tinct foetor of the breath ; if the bowels are involved scour- 
ing is common, and if the bones, swelling and lameness in- 
crease. Exhaustion with profuse perspiration and labored 
breathing occur on the slightest exertion, the appetite fails, 
tympany follows each meal, and the milk is at once poorer 
and lessened in quantity. The cough increases, becomes 
rattling, the discharge profuse, fetid, mixed with cheesy- 
like or chalky particles, crepitating, wheezing, gurgling 
and other abnormal noises are heard in the chest, and 
percussion shows dulness in particular parts with wincing. 
All of the symptoms become steadily aggravated, and the 
animal usually perishes from the difficulty of respiration 
or the profuse fetid diarrhoea. In cases affecting the 
bones, the patient may be unable to stand, and the bony 
prominences may make their waj^ through the skin or 
even crumble under the pressure thrown upon them. If 
the tubercle is deposited in liver, pancreas, or kidneys, there 
are symptoms of disease of these respective organs. 

Recoveries sometimes ensue in connection with healing of 
vomicae or calcification of the tubercles in strong subjects, 
but more frequently the disease progresses to a fatal issue. 

Treatment. This is unsatisfactory as being rarely suc- 
cessful, and even then in preserving an animal which is dan- 
gerous as a breeder for producing a progeny predisposed to 
this disease, and for slaughter and dairy purposes as possi- 
bly conveying the malady to man. 

The most promising course is to secure dry, pure air, 
sunshine, a genial temperature, rich and easily digestible 
food, containing abundance of fat (linseed, corn, beans, 
peas, potatoes), a course of tonics (linseed or cod-liver oil 
in small doses, sulphate of iron, hypophosphite of iron, 
quinia, gentian, etc.), and antiseptics (fumes of burning 
sulphur, bisulphite of soda, sulpho-carbolate of iron, etc.). 



142 The Farmer's Veterinary Ad/uiser. 

Prevention. This would include drainage, shelter of pas- 
tures by trees, avoidance of changes to cold or damp locali- 
ties, a warm, sunny location for farm buildings, suitable 
feeding and watering, the prevention and cure of all debili- 
tating, and especially chronic diseases, protection against 
overwork, or excessive secretion of milk on a stimulating but 
insufficiently nutritious diet, securing young, undeveloped 
animals against breeding and milking at the same time, re- 
jection of tuberculous subjects from breeding, the prompt 
removal of all such animals from pastures or buildings used 
for the healthy, and the thorough disinfection of all places 
where they have been kept. 

The flesh and milk of tuberculous animals are always to 
be viewed with suspicion, but this poison, like others, can 
be destnyyed by the most thorough cooking. 

QTJEBKA BUNDA. BEEIBEEI. 

This affection of horses is said to have been developed in 
the island of Marajo, in the mouth of the Amazon, as the 
result of the slaughter of the immense herds of predatory 
wild horses, and the decomposition of the carcasses under 
the tropical sun. It has extended to the adjacent mainland, 
and might easily be imported in the bodies of cheap Bra- 
zilian horses. It has even been thought to be identical 
with the Beriberi of man, in which case its introduction, 
and domestication in our Gulf States would appear to be a 
still more imminent contingency. The main symptoms of 
the malady are a progressive paralysis of the hind limbs, 
which renders the animal absolutely and permanently worth- 
less. The Portuguese name, given above, means literally 
broken buttock. Our principal danger consists in the pos- 
sibility of the germ being implanted and perpetuated in 
the rich alluvial soils of our semitropical Gulf States, and 
the consequent destruction of the equine races there, as they 
now are cut off in Brazil. 



CHAPTER IV. 
LARGER PARASITES. 

Parasites — their numbers. Tapeworms. Taenia Coenurus. Ccenurus Cer- 
el ralis and their effects, Staggers, Turnsick, Gid, Sturdy, Water-brain in 
calves and limbs. Taenia Echinococcus, Echinococcus Veterinorum (Horn- 
inis), Echinococcus disease. Taenia Solium. Cysticercus Cellulosa, Para- 
sitic measles in swine. Taenia Mediocanellata, Cysticercus Mediocanellata, 
Parasitic Measles in cattle. Taenia Expansa, tapeworm in sheep and cattle. 
Lard Worm, Kidney Worm of hogs. Eustrongylus Gigas, Kidney Worm. 
Trichina Spiralis, Trichinosis. 

PARASITES. 

The domestic animals harbor no less than two hundred 
species of parasites which will be found treated in the au- 
thor's larger work, but the limits of the present book will 
restrict us to a few of the more injurious. For convenience 
of reference most of these are noticed in connection with 
the organs (skin, bowels, liver, air-passages,) which they 
infest, and here we will only name such as having a more 
general diffusion through the body cannot well be referred 
to any one organ. 

TAPE-WORMS. 

These are flat-bodied worms made up of small segmenta 
joined end to end, and when full grown varying in length 
from one inch to one hundred feet. The narrow end ter- 
minates in a small globular head furnished with circular 
sucking discs, and a proboscis usually encircled by one or 
more rows of hooklets. From the other end the ripe seg- 
ments are continually detached and expelled from the 
body, and may be recognized as little, white, flattened, 



14-fc The Farmer 's Veterinary Adviser. 

oblong objects progressing over soil and vegetables by i\ 
worm-like movement, and depositing an endless number 
of microscopic eggs with which they are literally filled. 
Some tape-worms are estimated to lay as many as 25,000,- 
000 eggs. Taken with the food or water into the body of 
a suitable host these eggs open and set free an ovoid six- 
hooked embryo, which bores its way through the tissues 
until it reaches that organ or tissue which is the natural 
habitat of its species in the young or larval state and there 
encysts itself. It may survive indefinitely or even die in 
this situation or if its host is eaten by a carnivorous ani- 
mal it may develop in its bowels into a mature tape-worm 
and reproduce its species as before. Fortunately nearly 
all the eggs perish from failing to be taken into the body 
of a suitable animal in which they can develop into the 
cystic form, or this peril escaped, because the first animal 
host is not devoured by the right species of animal in 
which the young cystic worm can grow into its mature 
tape-worm form. But from the enormous fecundity of 
these tape-worms in eggs it is manifest that there may be 
scarcely any limit to their increase when the different ani- 
mals which form their hosts in the cystic and mature con- 
dition abound together in the same locality. 

STAGGERS. TURN-SICK. GID. STURDY. WATER-BRAIN IN 
LAMBS AND CALVES. 

The Tcenia Ccenurus of the bowels of the dog, a tape- 
worm of one to three feet long, has its cystic form — Ccenu- 
rus Gerebralis — in the brain and spinal cord of sheep and 
cattle, giving rise to nervous disease, varying much in 
character according to the exact site of the cyst. 

Symptoms. Great nervousness and fear without appar- 
ent cause, or dullness, stupor and aberration of the 
senses, and disorderly muscular movements. The sheep 
is found apart from the flock with red eyes, dilated pupils, 
blindness and unsteady gait, but with a tendency to move 
restlessly in one direction. Left to itself, it neglects tc 



Larger Parasites. 



145 



eat or drink and wastes daily. But, if well-fed and ex- 
citement avoided, it may even gain flesh. If the cyst is 
situated on one side of the brain, the lamb turns to that 
side, moving in a circle and making a beaten track. The 
limbs on the opposite side of the body act in a disorderly 
manner, being partially paralyzed. If there is one on 
each side of the brain, the sheep will turn to one side or 
the other, according to the relative activity of the para- 
sites at any given moment. When the cyst is directly in 
the median line, the sheep elevates its nose and advances 
in a straight line until stopped by some obstruction. 
When located in the back part of the brain, (cerebellum), 

Fig. 1. 




Fig. I — Ccenurus Cerebralis. Showing the sac with its many heads (re< 
duced). Also a single head magnified. 

the host lifts its limbs in a jerking, uncertain manner, sets 
them down in a hesitating way, stumbles perpetually, falls 
and struggles for some time ineffectually in its efforts to 
rise. If 'situated in the spinal cord, difficult breathing and 
paralysis are marked symptoms. The disorders are often 
extreme at first, and afterwards undergo a temporary im- 
provement, the remissions and aggravations being proba- 
bly due to the varying activity of the parasite at different 
periods. Simple tumors, maintaining a steadily increasing 
pressure rarely give rise to such intermittent symptoms. 
The ccenurus mostly affects sheep under two years old 
10 



140 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

and those that are out of condition. Yet the finest ani- 
mals, kept for show, will sometimes suffer. So it is in 
cattle, the young, weak and ill-thriven are the most ex- 
p@sed, but all may suffer. For the same reason, poor, 
damp and exposed localities suffer more than the rich, 
dry and sheltered. 

Prevention. Destroy the dogs, or, if they must be kept, 
deny them sheep's heads until cooked. Examine them at 
frequent intervals and expel all tape-worms by vermifuges, 
(oil of turpentine, male-fern, kousso, areca nut, etc.) 
Keep the young sheep at all times in good, thriving con- 
dition. Drain all wet pastures, shelter exposed ones. 

Treatment. In rare cases, spontaneous recovery may 
follow rupture of the cyst in connection with a blow on 
the head or a fall. Hogg passed a long knitting wire 
through the nose into the brain, and Youatt advises a 
small trocar for the same purpose. But the cyst is more 
easily punctured and extracted through the upper part of 
the skull. In advanced cases, the internal pressure of 
the cyst has sometimes caused absorption of the bones 
and the formation of a soft spot on the upper part of the 
skull. This should be laid open with a sharp lancet or 
penknife, just enough to introduce a trocar and cannula 
one-eighth inch in diameter, through which the liquid 
may escape slowly. The animal may be turned on 
its back to complete the evacuation, but held firmly so 
that no struggling can take place. As the cyst is emptied, 
a membrane will be found projecting through it, and 
should be slowly drawn out. This is the parasitic cyst, 
and from its inner surface will be found projecting one 
hundred to two hundred little elevations like pin-heads, 
each representing the head of a tape-worm and being ca- 
pable of development into the mature parasite if swal- 
lowed by a dog. The wound should be covered with a 
pitch plaster and a leather hood, and the patient placed 
in a dark, quiet, secluded box, on soft, laxative diet for a 
Week. 



Larger Parasites. 



147 



If the bones are not softened the point to be perforated 
must be ascertained from the symptoms. If the sheep 
turns to one side, open a little in front of the correspond- 
ing ear and about half an inch from the median line of 
the skull. If the head is elevated and the walk straight 
forward without much terror or disorderly movement, open 
at the same level but in the median line. If there is awk- 
ward, hesitating movement, much terror, flurry and 
stumbling, open in the median line further back. A flap 
of skin is to be dissected up from the bone, large enough 
to admit a trephine one-eighth inch in diameter (in an 
emergency a gimlet will do) with which the bone is to be 
perforated. After this the cannula and trochar is used as 
above advised. 

If more than one cyst should be present the operation 
may require repetition, and with care recoveries often en- 
sue. A bag of ice on the head may remove symptoms 
but does not kill the worm. 



ECHINOCOCCUS DISEASE. 

The Tcenia Echinoooccus, a tapeworm of the dog, not ex- 
Fig. 2. 




Fig. 2 — Taenia Echinococcus magnified (CobbolcT. 

Fig. 3. 




Fig. 3 — Portion of cyst and heads of Echinococcus. 

ceeduig one inch in length, lives in its cystic form ae 



1 43 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



Echinococcus (E. Hominis, E. Veterinorum), in the most 
varied internal organs of men and animals. As the cystic 
form of this parasite has the power of increasing its num- 
bers almost indefinitely, and growing into enormous mul- 
tilocular cysts, it becomes extremely injurious and even 
deadly to its brute, and, above all, to its human victims. 
One-sixth of the human mortality in Iceland has been at- 
tributed to this parasite, and a fatal case in a child has re- 
cently come under my notice in Tompkins Co., N. Y. Many 
of the cysts of water found in the liver and other internal 
organs of the domestic animals are specimens of echino- 
coccus, and that they are not more frequently fatal may be 
attributed largely to the shortness of the lives of animals 
raised for slaughter. They may inhabit almost any organ 
(liver, lungs, spleen, abdominal walls, kidneys, brain, eye, 
etc.,) and the symptoms will vary accordingly. 

Treatment. Spontaneous recovery may take place from 
death or rupture of the sac. Otherwise the true nature 
of these fluctuating tumors can rarely be recognized, but 
if they should, they may be punctured with a very fine 
needle-shaped nozzle, the liquid evacuated with a syringe, 
and compound tincture of iodine injected into the sac. 

Prevention. Destroy all superfluous dogs. Keep others 
from slaughter-houses and deny raw flesh and especially 
offal. Examine frequently and if segments of tape-worm 
are passed, clear them away with vermifuges (see gid). 
Burn the dung of all dogs suffering from tape-worms, the 
contents of evacuated hydatids and all offal containing 
cysts. 

MEASLES IN SWINE. 
Fig. 4. 




Fig. 4 — Head of Taenia Solium, magnified. Cobbold. 

The bladder- worm of pork, (Cysticercus Cellulosa, Fig. 



Larger Parasites. 149 

5), is the immature form of a tape-worm of man, (Tcenia 
solium), and is only caused by pigs having access to hu- 

Fig. 5. 




Fig. 5 — Cysticercus Cellulosa, magnified. 

man excrement, or to places near privies, etc., from which 
the segments of the human tape-worm may travel. The 
cysts, respectively about the size of a grain of barley, are 
found in the muscles, in the loose connective tissue be- 
tween them and under the skin, in the serous membranes, 
in the eye, under the tongue, in the brain, etc., of swine. 
They are also found in this undeveloped form in the mus- 
cles, brain, etc., of man, causing disease and death. To 
man the parasite is usually conveyed by eating under- 
done pork, or in the cystic form he receives it as the 
egg in his food (salads, etc.,) and water. 

Symptoms. In pigs the cysts can usually be seen under 
the tongue or in the eye. In man there are the general 
symptoms of intestinal worms and the passage of the ripe 
segments. Other symptoms may attend the presence of 
the cysts according to the organ which they invade. Thus 
when passing into the muscles there are pains and stiffness 
resembling rheumatism, when into the brain, coma, stupor, 
imbecility, delirium, but when they have once become en- 
cysted they may continue thus indefinitely without further 
injury. 

Treatment. The cysts scattered through the body are 
beyond the reach of medicine. 

Prevention. Human beings harboring tape-worms should 
be compelled to take measures to expel them. Their stools 
should be burned or treated with strong mineral acids. 
Swine should be kept far apart from all deposits of human 
excrement ; no such manure should be used as a top-dress- 



150 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

ing on pastures open to swine, or on land (market gardens, 
orchards, etc.,) devoted to the raising of vegetables to be 
eaten raw. Avoid raw meat, especially pork, even if 
salted and smoked, and underdone meat and sausages, 
also well-water from gravelly soils in the vicinity of habi- 
tations. 

MEASLES IN CATTLE. 

This consists in the presence in the muscles of cattle, 
especially young ones, of a cystic parasite two to four lines 
in length, ( Cysticercus Mediocanellata) which as a mature 
tape-worm (Taenia Mediocanellata) inhabits the human 

Fig. 6. 




Fig. 6 — Head of Taenia Mediocanellata, magnified. 

bowels. When the eggs were given experimentally to calves 
they caused stiffness, wasting and death in three weeks. 
Or improvement began at the end of a fortnight and ter- 
minated in apparent recovery, the live cysts of course re- 
maining in the muscles and ready to develop into their 
adult form when eaten by man. 

Under prevention and treatment might be repeated what 
is stated under measles of swine, merely substituting the 
word cattle for pigs. The current practice of eating raw 
beef ham is especially reprehensible. 

TAPE-WORM OF SHEEP AND CATTLE. 

Taenia Expansa is the name of this worm, which causes 
great loss in some localities in America, as well as in Aus- 
tralia, Germany, etc. Its cystic form is unknown, there- 
fore we can only check its increase by watching what 



Larger Parasites. 



151 



sheep pass the ripe, detached segments, shutting them up, 
expelling the worm by vermifuges (oil of turpentine in 
milk, male-fern, etc.,) and burning both it and the sheep's 
droppings. 

LAED-W0KM OF THE HOG. 

This worm (Stephanurus Dentatus) is from one to one and 
Fig. 7. 




Fig. 7 — Stephanurus Dentatus ; a, male ; d, female ; c, head, magnified. Ver 

rill. 

three-fourths inches long by one-thirteenth inch broad, 
and is found in almost all parts of the body of swine. It 

Fig. 8. 




Fig. 8 — Eustrongylus Gigas. Cuvier. 

is frequent in the liver, kidney and the fat about the spare- 



152 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



rib, but lias been found in the air-passages, the heart, the 
veins, the mesentery and elsewhere. In many cases no 
impairment of the health is observed. But irritation of 
important organs like the kidney or liver may lead to weak- 
ness of the hind parts, diarrhoea, or even blood-poisoning 
and sudden death. It seems not improbable that the at- 
tacks of this worm in the liver may produce a disorder 
which is confounded with Hog Cholera. Its presence in 
the kidney may sometimes be recognized by the existence 
of microscopic eggs in the urine. The same results from 
another worm — Eustrongylus Gigas. But without the ob- 
servation of such eggs weakness of the hind parts cannot 
be ascribed to the kidney -worm. 

Treatment is unsatisfactory. Small doses of salt and oil 
of turpentine may be given with no great hope of success. 
The favorite dose of arsenic only escapes killing the hog 
because he rejects it all by vomiting. If beneficial at all 
it must be in small doses, one-eighth to one-sixth grain, so 
that it may be taken up into the system. 

•Prevention is to be sought by keeping the healthy and 
diseased apart, and especially by raising young pigs apart 
from the ground occupied by the old. 

TRICHINA SPIRALIS. 

This worm, which is capable of being reared in all the 
domestic animals, is especially common in man, the hog 

Fig. 9. 



Fig. 9 — Adult Intestinal Trichina Spiralis, magnified. 

and the rat. Trichinae are almost microscopic, vary- 



Larger Parasites. 



153 



ing from one-eighteenth to one-sixth inch in length, yet 
they are among the most deadly worms known. The ma- 
ture and fertile worm lives in the intestines of animals, the 
immature in minute cysts in the muscle. The latter can only 

Fig. 10. 




Fig. 10 — Muscle Trichina encysted, magnified. 

reach maturity and reproduce their kind when the animal 
which they infest is devoured by another and they are set 
free by the digestion of their cysts. "When thus introduced 
into the bowels they grow and propagate their kind, giv- 
ing rise to much irritation for the first fortnight, diarrhoea, 
enteritis ox peritonitis. The symptoms caused by their bor- 
ing through the bowels and into the muscles last from the 
eighth to the fiftieth day. There are violent muscular 
pains like rheumatism but not affecting the joints, a stiff, 
semiflexed condition of the limbs and sometimes swellings 
on the skin. In man the affection is often mistaken for 
rheumatism or typhoid fever, in the lower animals the 
symptoms are usually less marked but are the same in kind. 
There are loss of appetite, indisposition to move, pain 
when handled and stiffness behind. If the patient sur- 
vives six weeks recovery may be expected because the 
worms no longer irritate after becoming encysted in the 
muscle. 

Treatment. In the first six weeks, but especially for the 
first fortnight, use laxatives and vermifuges. Glycerine, 
benzine, Diippel's animal oil, chloroform, alcohol and pic- 
ric acid are fatal to them in about the order named. 

Prevention. Never eat underdone meat. Trichina sur- 



154 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

vive 140° F. Hams thoroughly smoked or salted for three 
months are safe. Slightly smoked hams and those steeped 
in creosote or carbolic acid are most dangerous. Pigs should 
not be kept near slaughter-houses, and especially should the 
waste of these places be forbidden them. Such hog-pens, 
indeed all piggeries, should be kept scrupulously clean and 
clear of rats and mice. The carcasses of swine fed near 
slaughter-houses or where rats abound should be subjected 
to a thorough microscopic examination before passing into 
consumption. Whenever a case of trichinosis occurs in a 
human subject the pork should be traced to its source if 
possible, and the pigs reared in the same place killed and 
subjected to prolonged boiling. The rats and mice should 
be eradicated and the hog-pens and manure burned. 



CHAPTER V. 
DIETETIC AND CONSTITUTIONAL DISEASES 

Ergotism. Goitre. Rheumatism. Acute Anasarca. Purpura Iloemor- 
rhagica. Anaemia. 

ERGOTISM. 

From time immemorial animals and men have suffered 
from eating the cereal grains which have been attacked 
with ergot. This was especially the case when agriculture 
was in its infancy, for then a damp, cloudy season would 
cause this affection to spread after the manner of a plague. 
The same holds still to a less extent, and in the New 
World as well as the Old. Not only the ergot but even the 
smut of maize will bring about untoward effects. These 
results may be divided into three categories according as 
the poison acts on the brain producing convulsions, paraly- 
sis or profound lethargy ; on the womb tending to abortion ; 
or on the extremities causing dry gangrene. 

Symptoms of the Nervous Form. Unsteady gait, a great 
tendency to lie down and to remain in a torpid state little 
conscious of what is passing around, loss of lustre of hair 
or feathers, coldness of skin, dilatation of the pupils of the 
eyes, and dullness of the special senses mark the early 
stages. This may go on to paralysis or deep lethargy 
without any active nervous excitement. Or paroxysms 
supervene, during which the special senses become more 
acute, the animal very excitable, and twitching of the mus- 
cles or spasms like those of lockjaw or epilepsy convulse 
the patient. Then there is a relapse into the former stupor 
and drowsiness, with palsy of the hind limbs or knuckling 



156 The Farmer 's Veterinary Adviser. 

forward at the fetlocks. Death may ensue in a few hours 
or days, or the affection may become chronic, the patient 
remaining with variable appetite, but getting no good of 
his food, with spasms of the pharynx, vomiting or diar- 
rhoea. He usually passes off in a convulsion. 

Symptoms of the Abortion Form do not differ from those 
of abortion from other causes. (See Abortion). 

Symptoms cf tlte Gangrenous Form. Nervous symptoms 
may or may not usher in the disease. Then follow swell- 
ing, heat and tenderness of the extremities, usually the 
hind feet but sometimes the fore, or the tail, ears or roots 
of the horns. Lameness usually first draws attention to 
this condition. Soon the extremity becomes cold, insen- 
sible, of a deep brownish-red appearance and dry, hard or 
almost horny. The swelling, heat and tenderness persist 
higher up, but the lower part is dead including even the 
bone up to a given point. At this level a red, circular 
crack appears in the skin separating the dead from the 
living, and if the patient should survive long enough the 
whole gangrenous part drops off. 

It usually occurs in winter from the dry hay fodder but 
is distinguished from frost-bite by implicating the deep as 
well as the superficial parts and attacking the feet in pref- 
erence to the more exposed tail and ears. 

Treatment is only successful in the mildest cases, and 
the earliest stages. Change to wholesome diet, including 
plenty of roots or potatoes. Clear offensive matter from 
the bowels by laxatives, and give tonics (cinchona, gen- 
tian,) stimulants (ammonia, valerian, angelica, musk,) and 
antispasmodics (opium, chloral-hydrate, chloroform, or 
nitrite of amyle). Use soft, warm poultices containing 
camphor. 

Prevention. Ergoted hay, known by the black, spur-like 
growths out of the husks, should be withheld, or fed only 
in limited quantity in conjunction with roots and potatoes. 
Be careful in selecting seed clear of ergot. Seed may be 
protected to a large extent by sprinkh'ne' with a strong 



Dietetic and Constitutional Diseases. 157 

solution of blue-stone or bisulphite of soda before sowing, 
and drying with quicklime. Contaminated soil should be 
used for other crops. Drainage, and open sunshine are 
conducive to healthy growth. Hay from affected pastures 
must be cut early, before it has run to seed. 

GOITRE. 

This is a diseased enlargement of the thyroid body, sit- 
uated beneath the throat, and is common in animals and 
in man wherever the water is charged with the products 
of magnesian-limestone. Hence, its frequency on the 
limestone formations of New York and Pennsylvania. 
Weakness, from any disease, poor feeding, abuse, over- 
work, etc., aggravates the affection. In solipeds there 
are two distinct swellings, one on each side, but in other 
animals and, above all, in swine, the swelling is single and 
in the median line. At first it is soft and even doughy, 
but afterwards it is firm, tense and resistant, and if cut into 
may even be gritty. In lambs it may form a great en- 
gorgement from the jaw to the breast-bone, and the whole 
produce of the year may be still-born or die soon after 
birth. 

Treatment. Give rain-water and use iodine freely, 
both internally, on an empty stomach, and over the swell- 
ing. Persist in this for months. Weak solutions of iodine 
may be thrown into the tumor by a hypodermic syringe, 
or the nutrient blood-vessels may be tied. 

The destruction of lambs by goitre may be obviated by 
giving the ewes rain-water, good feeding and plenty of ex- 
si cise in the open air during the winter. 

RHEUMATISM. 

This is a peculiar form of inflammation attacking the 
fibrous structures of the body (muscles, tendons, joints, 
bursae, etc.,) and dependent on a constitutional predispo- 
sition transmitted from parent to offspring. It often 
shifts from place to place, rarely results in suppuration, 



158 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

and shows a great tendency to implicate fatally the valves 
and other fibrous structures of the heart. Besides the 
constitutional predisposition, it owes its development to 
accessory causes, such as cold and wet, cold draughts, and 
disorders, especially those of the digestive or respiratory 
organs which load the blood with abnormal and probably 
acid elements. 

Symptoms. Acute Form. Dullness, languor or indispo- 
sition to move is followed by extreme lameness in one or 
more limbs, and heat, swelling and tenderness of a joint, 
tendon or group of muscles. If this tenderness moves 
from joint to joint or muscle to muscle it is very charac- 
teristic. The swelling is at first soft and afterward hard 
and resistant ; it may fluctuate from excess of synovia in a 
joint, but rarely from the formation of matter. With the 
onset of the inflammation comes active fever, with full, 
hard pulse, increased temperature, hot, clammy mouth, 
dry muzzle, hurried breathing, costiveness, and scanty, 
high-colored urine, sometimes with a neutral or even acid 
reaction. Cattle often remain down and refuse to rise. 
If the disease extends to the heart, the pulse has a sharp, 
often intermittent or irregular beat, and one or other of 
the heart sounds may be accompanied by a hissing or 
sighing murmur. (See diseases of the heart.) 

Chronic Form. This resembles the acute, excepting that 
it is less severe, usually unattended by fever, and may 
even appear only on exposure, and disappear in the warm 
sunshine. It is liable to induce fibrous and even bony en- 
largements, and in cattle suppuration, especially about the 
joints, and in such cases the disease is more stable and 
less inclined to shift from place to place. 

Treatment. Give a laxative (horse, aloes ; ox or sheep, 
Epsom salts ; pig or dog, castor oil,) with anodynes 
(opium) if pain is extreme, and follow up with alkalies 
(bicarbonate of potassa or soda; acetate of potassa or 
ammonia ; cream of tartar,) and diuretics (colchicum, mu- 
riate of ammonia, nitrate of potassa). Sudorific s (hot 



Dietetic and Constitutional Diseases. 159 

room; warm clothing; rugs wrung out of boiling wator 
closely applied to the skin and covered with dry ; bags of 
dry grain, bran or sand ; rubbing with hot smoothing-irons 
over a thin covering ; hot air or steam baths ; aconite ; 
acetate of ammonia ; guarana, etc.,) are in the highest de- 
gree beneficial. Some agents, like propylamine and muri- 
ate of iron, have been very serviceable in certain hands. 
Local treatment consists in the application of warmth, 
etc., as above indicated, and also blisters (strong aqua 
ammonia and olive oil) which may be applied several 
times a day and the inflammation followed up as it re- 
cedes from structure to structure. 

ACUTE ANASAKCA. PURPURA HEMORRHAGICA. 

The affection to be described here is altogether different 
in its nature from the dropsies which result from obstruc- 
tion of veins, in phlebitis, or because of pressure by a dis- 
eased structure, as also from those dependent on suppres- 
sion of the secretion of urine, on heart-disease or a watery 
state of the blood with deficiency of blood globules. It is 
not at all inflammatory nor of the nature of malignant an- 
thrax as is generally assumed. It is exceedingly common 
after influenza and other affections of the respiratory organs, 
in ill-ventilated stables where animals are compelled to use 
rebreathed air, and in very open, cold barns where they 
are liable to be chilled after being heated at work. Sud- 
den excessive lowering of temperature or exposure to cold 
rain or wind storms, especially when hot and perspiring, 
are efficient causes by reason of the sudden check to the 
secretions of the skin. The disease is much more fre- 
quent under the extreme vicissitudes of temperature of the 
Northern States than in the more equable climate of ihe 
British Isles. 

Symptoms. The disease is manifested abruptly by ap- 
pearance of tense, painful, rounded or diffuse swellings on 
the nose, lips, face, neck, inner sides of the limbs, belly or 
indeed anywhere over the body. These tend to enlarge, 



1G0 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



to run together and to gravitate downwards into the limbs 
and the lower parts of the trunk, where they form extend- 
ed, tolerably smooth swellings, pitting on pressure and 
subsiding abruptly into the sound skin at their upper mar- 
gins. The membrane lining the nose usually shows dark 
blood spots and patches, ineffaceable by pressure, even at 
this early stage, sometimes indeed before any swelling of the 
skin, but always as the disease advances. Similar spots may 
be seen on the skins of white animals. The urine is usu- 
ally dense, thick, ammoniacal and often brownish-red. 
Shivering often marks the period of effusion but there is 
at first little change of pulse, temperature, breathing 01 
appetite. As the swellings increase, the animal becomes 
unable to see, to eat, or even to move, almost, and breath- 
ing may be carried on only with the greatest difficulty, 
through the swollen and closed nostrils. Transverse 
cracks and yellowish liquid oozing, appear in the bends of 
the joints ; little blisters with yellowish or bloody con- 
tents rise, especially in the hollow of the heel behind the 
pastern, and, bursting, continue to discharge. Yellowish 
serum or dark blood may ooze from the general surface of 
the swelling ; patches of skin die, drop off and leave un- 
healthy, weak sores with a serous discharge ; the exuda- 
tions may even soften the muscles, and loosen and detach 
the tendons from the bones leading to turning up of the 
toe or other distortions. Sometimes the superficial swell- 
ings suddenly subside, and unless a critical diarrhoea or 
diuresis occurs, serous infiltration of some internal organ 
like the lungs or bowels is apt to ensue, cutting off the pa- 
tient suddenly, with great oppression of breathing or vio- 
lent and persistent colicky pains, and, at times, a bloody 
foetid diarrhoea. 

The symptoms and dangers vary with the seat of the 
effusion. The result is most favorable when this is under 
the skin, the main danger then being from suffocation, ex- 
tensive death and sloughing of skin, and softening and de- 
tachment of tendons and ligaments. Unless improvement 



Dietetic and Constitutional Diseases. 1G1 

is shown by the third or fourth day the disease will usually 
last over twelve or fourteen days, and the resulting sores 
even for months. 

Prevention. Keep in strong, vigorous health, and avoid 
the various causes (exposure, etc.,) known to precipitate 
the malady. Drainage of damp localities is not without 
its influence. Lastly, avoid weakening treatment in dis- 
eases of the respiratory organs, especially such as are at- 
tended with a low type of fever like influenza, and, above 
all, avoid exercising such animals to fatigue, or exposing 
to inclement weather. 

Treatment. Give a mild laxative (olive oil, linseed oil, 
aloes,) and follow up by diuretics (sweet spirits of nitre, oil 
of turpentine, buchu, nitrate of potassa,) carefully gradua- 
ted in amount to the strength of the patient, and use 
freely agents calculated to increase the viscidity of the 
blood (tincture of muriate of iron 1 dr., chlorate of potassa 
2 to 4 dr., bichromate of potassa ^ grain,) with bitter 
tonics (quinia, cascarilla, camomile,) and, if necessary to 
moderate suffering, anodynes (belladonna) or in very pros- 
trate conditions stimulants (alcoholic liquors, oil of tur- 
pentine). Locally, the swellings should be often bathed 
with tepid lotions of tincture of muriate of iron, carbolic 
acid, or chloride of zinc diluted so as to be non-irritating. 
Astringent solutions should be assiduously employed 
about the head, and, if suffocation is threatened, tubes of 
gutta-percha may be inserted in the nostrils to keep them 
open. Tracheotomy is to be avoided if possible, together 
with scarifying of the swellings, because of the risk of un- 
healthy sores resulting. 

Modified Forms. The mild forms of this affection have 
been described as scarlatina, the distinction being based 
on the punctiforn mature of the blood-staining, the sever- 
ity of the sore-throat and the more moderate exudation. 
But there is no contagion nor, indeed, anything that seems 
to warrant the distinction claimed. This form may be es- 
pecially benefited by poultices and counter-irritants to the 
11 



1G2 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

throat, by the inhalation of warm water vapor, and by as- 
tringent electuaries (chlorate of potassa, 2 oz. ; vinegar, 2 
oz. ; linseed meal, 5 oz. ; syrup, sufficient to form a pasty 
mass. Smear one-eighth of the mass on the back teeth 
twice a day). Otherwise, the treatment is the same as for 
purpura. 

ANEMIA. 

This term is used to imply a deficiency of red globules 
in the blood, a result which may be determined by a vari- 
ety of causes described in other parts of this work. Among 
these may be named : worms, profuse bleeding, excessive se- 
cretions from the udder, kidneys, bowels, etc., chronic dis- 
eases of digestion, or of the mesenteric glands, feeding on 
aliment deficient in some essential element, on what has been 
grown on poor, sandy soils, restriction for a length of time to 
one kind of food, starvation, diseases of the jaws or teeth, 
damp, dark, badly-aired buildings, seclusion from sunlight, 
etc. Some cases, however, are not traceable to any defi- 
nite cause, and it appears that they set in and progress, in 
spite of good hygienic arrangements, and in the absence 
of any obvious disease of structure. 

Symptoms. Great and increasing paleness of the mu- 
cous membranes, and in white animals of the skin (paper 
skin) ; lack of fullness or roundness of the veins ; slow, 
weak pulse ; heart's beat slow and heard with difficulty, 
but excited to palpitation when the patient is subjected to 
violent exertion; there is great lack of life and energy, 
and hurried breathing, perspiration and fatigue are easily 
induced. As the blood becomes poorer all these symp- 
toms are aggravated, movement becomes unsteady, the 
hair or wool is easily detached, appetite fails, the dung is 
passed in small quantities and very hard, and a very clear 
urine of a low density is secreted in excess. In the ad- 
vanced stages the pale, dull, sunken eye, the puffy appear- 
ance of the membrane of the eyelids, the dropsical swell- 
ings beneath the jaws or body or in the limbs, the inability 



Dietetic and Constitutional Diseases. 163 

or disinclination to rise, the staggering gait, the hurried 
breathing becoming quick and wheezing on the least exer- 
tion, and the palpitations are highly characteristic. Towards 
the end the urine may pass involuntarily or diarrhoea may 
supervene. Death sometimes occurs early, before there is 
much emaciation, and horses will even die in harness. 

Prevention. Avoid everything calculated to reduce the sys- 
tem unduly. Severe depletive treatment of disease (bleed- 
ing, purging, diuretics,) should only be resorted to under 
necessity. Hard work, excessive yield of milk, etc., can only 
be warranted under a rich, abundant food, and in an animal 
of great powers of digestion and assimilation. Kegularity in 
feeding, watering and work are essential. 

The effect of a spare diet, even in idleness, must be care- 
fully watched, as well as a long-continued feeding on one 
variety of plant. If evil effects are shown there should be 
a prompt change to natural hay or grass, consisting of a 
variety of plants grown on a dry soil, and a liberal supply of 
grain. 

In cases due to parasites or other removable cause, atten- 
tion to these is manifestly the first step to prevention. 

Treatment. After removal of the causes, support by nour- 
ishing, easily-digested food in small bulk to avoid exhausting 
the powers of the stomach. Ground oats, barley, oil-cake, 
and a little natural hay may be especially mentioned, though, 
for weak subjects, thick, well-boiled gruels and beef tea 
(even for herbivora) may be resorted to. Tonics are all-im- 
portant (iron, gentian, quassia, cascarilla, cinchona, common 
salt, pepsin,) but should be given in small doses to the weaker 
subjects. Iron and gentian, given as tinctures, are espe- 
cially useful. In extreme cases, health may be speedily re- 
vived by the transfusion of blood from a healthy animal. In 
all cases, the patient should be allowed rest in a dry, warm, 
well-aired place, and should have light, sunshine, and groom- 
ing. 



CHAPTER VI. 
DISEASES OF THE RESPIRATORY ORGANS. 

General causes of diseases of the breathing organs. Physical examination 
of these organs : — Auscultation, percussion. Bleeding from the nose. Nasal 
Catarrh. Cold in the head. Collection of matter in the nasal sinuses. Al> 
scess of the false nostril. Abscess in the guttural pouches. Tumors in the 
nose. Malignant catarrh of cattle. Sore-throat. Croup. Roup. Diphthe- 
ria. Chronic roaring. Bronchitis. Chronic bronchitis. Glander heaves. 
Acute congestion of the lungs. Pneumonia. Inflammation of the lungs. 
Pleurisy. Inflammation of the membrane lining the chest. Pleuro-pneu- 
monia. Broncho-pneumonia. Broncho-pleuro-pneumonia. Hydro-thorax. 
Water in the chest. Pneumo -thorax. Air or gas in the chest. Abscess of 
the intercostal spaces. Dropsy of the lung. Apoplexy of the lung. Pleu- 
ro-dynia. Rheumatism of the walls of the chest. Asthma in dogs. Heaves. 
Broken- wind. Bleeding from the lungs. Haemoptysis. Parasites in the 
upper air-passages. Grub in the head. Larva of GLstrus Ovis. Pentasto- 
ma Taenioides. Parasites in the lower air-passages. Lung-worms of sheep, 
etc Lung-worms of horses and cattle. Gape-worm of fowls. Verminous, 
bronchitis in calves, sheep, swine and birds. 

DISEASES OF THE RESPIRATORY ORGANS. 

These are of the first importance in domestic animals 
alike as regards their frequency and the mortality and 
other serious consequences they entaiL In young horses 
especially they are far more common and more destructive 
than any other class of diseases. Among the general 
causes of diseases of this class of organs the following may 
be stated in brief : 1. The great extent of the respiratory 
surface in the lungs = 200 to 500 square feet. 2. The ex- 
treme tenuity and delicacy of the membrane covering this 
surface, protective cells (epithelium) being almost wanting 
in the air cells, contrary to what exists on every other mu- 
cous surface in the body. 3. The extraordinary work tc 



Diseases of the Respiratory Organs. 165 

which the lungs are subjected in the rapid paces and se- 
vere efforts made by the horse. 4. The close, impure air 
of the stable in contrast to the clear bracing air of the fields 
to which the colt has been accustomed. 5. The effect of 
the hot relaxing air of the stable is not only on the lungs 
directly but on the skin with which the lungs and all in- 
ternal organs so closely sympathize. 6. The heats and 
chills, and violent nervous excitement to which young 
horses are subjected in passing into training and work. 

7. The changes of locality, feeding and management to 
which young horses are subjected on leaving the breeder. 

8. The variable weather and sudden, extreme changes of 
spring and autumn. 9. The susceptibility which results 
from the want of habitude of bearing extreme heat and 
cold, and which tells especially at the above seasons. 10. 
The draughts of cold air to which animals are often sub- 
jected, and particularly when warm and perspiring. 11. 
The frequent exposure to cold drenching rains, night dews 
and the like, after the excitement and relaxation consequent 
on a hard day's work. 12. The arrest of circulation through 
the lungs owing to imperfect seration of the blood when an 
animal out of condition is driven at a pace beyond his 
power of endurance. 

Modes of Physical Exploration of the Respiratory Organs. 
Auscultation and percussion are the most essential. The 
first is the application of the ear alone or with a stetho- 
scope to the surface over some part of the respiratory or- 
gans (nose, throat, windpipe, chest,) to listen to the natural 
sounds of breathing and to detect any unnatural change 
or absence of these sounds. The natural sounds must be 
studied on the healthy animal, and then the different mod- 
ifications followed on the diseased. In general terms there 
is a blowing sound to be heard in health over the nose, 
throat, windpipe, and between the upper and middle 
thirds of the chest. In the rest of the chest is a soft, rus- 
tling murmur which has been compared to the gentlest 
zeuhyr stirring dry leaves. Just behind the left elbow m 



1GG The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

horses this murmur is absent and replaced by the sound? 
of the heart. Between the upper and middle thirds of the 
chest it mingles with the blowing sound anteriorly, but is 
unaccompanied by that over the few last ribs. Percussion 
consists in drawing out the resonance of any part by strik- 
ing it gentle taps with a hard object, the blows falling per- 
pendicularly to its surface, and of a force proportioned to 
the depth of the organ it is meant to sound. Thus, for the 
surface, the gentlest taps with the tip of the finger are 
wanted, while for the centre of the chest in large animals, 
the closed fist may be advantageously used. For inter- 
mediate depths the four fingers and thumb may be brought 
together, in a straight line at their tips, and the surface 
tapped with this. When a cavity, enclosed by a hard 
bony surface, such as the nose, is being sounded, it is well 
enough to tap this direct, but if the surface is soft, as in 
the chest of fat and fleshy animals, a hard, solid body 
should be pressed firmly upon it and the taps delivered 
upon this. As the different parts of the right hand maj 
be used for delivering the taps, so may the two middle fin* 
gers of the left hand be employed to compress the soft 
parts and receive them. The front of the fingers should 
be applied against the surface and the hard bony backs 
turned out to receive the taps. If percussion is made over 
a hollow space, like the nose or windpipe, the sound is 
drum-like ; if over an open, spongy tissue, like the lung, it 
is much less so but still full and clear, but if over a solid 
body, like the thigh, it is dull, dead, or quite wanting in 
resonance. Behind the left elbow such dull sound is met 
with in the horse and, to a less extent, in cattle ; and on 
the last ribs on the right side in cattle, sheep and pigs a 
similar dullness is found in accordance with the position 
of the liver. Any increase, diminution or loss of reso- 
nance over particular parts thus becomes of great value as 
indicating the healthy or unnatural state of the parts. 
But the observer must learn this matter by experience on 
the healthy and diseased. These hints are merely thrown 
out to make what will follow intelligible. 



Diseases of the Respiratory Organs. 167 

BLEEDING FROM THE NOSE. 

Bleeding from the nose is rather rare in animals, an 3 
usually results from disease or injury to the mucous mem 
brane or to violent exertions in coughing, sneezing, draw- 
ing heavy loads uphill, or with a tight collar, and espo 
cially in animals with a plethoric habit. 

Symptoms. Bleeding in drops (rarely in a stream) from 
one nostril only, accompanied by sneezing, and without 
frothing or sour odor. Bleeding from the lungs comes 
from both nostrils, is bright-red, frothy and accompanied 
by a cough. Bleeding from the stomach also comes from 
both nostrils, and is black, clotted, sour, and attended bj 
retching. 

Treatment. Tie the head short up to a high rack or beam 
sover head and neck with bags of ice or rugs wrung out of 
cold water, and blow matico powder or strong alum water 
in spray into the nose during inspiration. In obstinate 
casss, the nose may be plugged with pledgets of tow, tied 
with a soft cord by which they may be withdrawn when 
the bleeding subsides. Both nostrils must not be plugged 
in horses unless tracheotomy has first been performed. 
Internally, may be given gallic acid, acetate of lead, per- 
chloride of iron or ergot of rye. 

NASAL CATARRH. COLD IN THE HEAD. 

This results from the general causes above mentioned 
and from irritant gases, vapors, etc. 

Symptoms. Sneezing, redness and watering of the eyes, 
and redness of the membrane of the nose which is at first 
dry, afterwards discharges a clear watery fluid and finally a 
yellowish-white muco-purulent matter. In mild cases 
there is little or no fever, in the more severe fever may 
run high. 

Treatment. In mild cases rest in a clear, airy, warm 
building with suitable clothing and warm bran mashes is 
all that 'is necessary. In the more severe steam the nose 
is for strangles, and slightly charge the air with the fumes 



168 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



of burning sulphur, give warm water injections or even 
a mild laxative, (horse, ox or sheep, Glauber salts ; dog or 
pig, castor oil), followed by refrigerant diuretics (nitre, 
acetate of potassa, etc.). If debility ensues feed well and 

Fig. 11. 




Fig. II — Syphon for injecting the nose. 

give tonics (gentian, etc.,) and stimulants (spirits of nitrous 
ether). Chronic discharges may usually be promptly 
checked by injecting the nose with a weak astringent 
solution (sulphate of zinc \ dr., glycerine 1 oz., tepid 
water 1 qt.) This is thrown in with a syphon having one 
arm sixteen inches long and the other leaving that at an 
angle of 45°, three and a half inches long and narrowing to 
half an inch at the point. The short limb is inserted into 
the nostril, having first been passed through a hole in the 
centre of a piece of sole leather intended to prevent the 
return of the fluid from the nose. The adaptation is 
perfected by pledgets of tow, and the head being brought 
into a vertical position the liquid is poured into the long 
end of the syphon until it rises in that nasal chamber 
and escapes by the opposite nostril. One or two such in- 
jections are usually sufficient. 

COLLECTION OF MATTER IN THE NASAL SINUSES. 

This is common after severe colds in the horse ; and as 
the result of blows on the forehead or horns in oxen, of 
injuries from the yoke, etc. ; in sheep from grub in the 
head (larva of (Estrus Ovis) ; in dogs and horses from the 
pentastomata, and in all animals from diseases of the upper 
back teeth. 

Symptoms. A more or less constant discharge fron 



Diseases of the Respiratory Organs. 1G9 

the nose, fetid if long retained, and above all if from a dis- 
eased tooth, a dullness on percussion on that side of tht 
face between the eyes or just beneath the eyes, and occa- 
sionally heat, tenderness and even swelling of these pans, 
especially below the eye. 

Treatment. Trephine the bone to one side of the 
median line of the forehead, in the interval between the 
eyes, and again, an inch above the end of the bony ridge 
which extends down beneath the eye, and wash out daily, 
at first with tepid water and finally with the injection 
recommended for the nose. In the case of parasites 
these must be rinsed out. Sometimes a slight collection 
of this kind will recover under injections for the nose 
and the persistent use of sulphate of iron or copper, 
or other tonic. If there is a diseased tooth it will be 
recognized by the dropping of food half-chewed, by 
the swelling and tenderness around the fang of the 
tooth and by the intolerable foetor which clings to the 
fingers when a balling iron has been placed in the mouth 
and the tooth examined with the hand. Such a tooth 
must be extracted with large forceps, if already loosened, 
or if not, an opening should be made upon its fang with a 
trephine and the offending tooth driven out with a punch 
and mallet. But there is much danger of injuring impor- 
tant vessels and nerves unless the operator is thoroughly 
conversant with anatomy. 

ABSCESS OF THE FALSE NOSTRIL. 

This is common in young horses and appears as a slowly 
increasing, inactive, tense, round swelling in the outer 
part of the nostril. It is so firm as to feel solid but col- 
lapses at once when opened. It should be laid open from 
within the nose along its whole length and plugged witl v 
tow till the raw edges have skinned over. 

ABSCESS IN THE GUTTURAL POUCHES. 

These are two cavities situated above the throat and pe- 



170 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



culiar to solipeds. Each has a small opening at its ante- 
rior part through which any liquid within them can escape 
only when the head is depressed. Hence a collection oJ 
matter in these sacs, consequent on a sore throat, escapes- 
and is discharged through the nose intermittently when 
the head is down drinking, or still more in grazing or nib- 
bling roots. The discharge comes from both nostrils and 
there may or may not be swelling beneath the ear. Many 
such cases will recover if sent to grass or fed from the 
ground and treated with some of the tonics recommended 
for chronic catarrh or glanders. But should these fail the 
sac must be laid open, setoned and washed out daily with 
% weak astringent lotion. This operation requires the 
most accurate knowledge of the parts to avoid the many 
important structures in the region. (See the author's lar- 
ger work.) 

TUMOKS IN THE NOSE. 

Tumors of almost every kind grow in the nose and must 
be removed by surgical means. 

MALIGNANT CATARRH OF CATTLE. 

This appears mainly in cold, damp, marshy situations 
where the vitality is impaired, or in unusual seasons. Il 
the cold early summer of 1875 I met with it in cowfc 
in several marshy places. Low, damp river-bottoms are 
most subject to it and probably it is due to deleterious 
agents taken in with the food and water as well as to chills 
and exposure. 

Symptoms. A slight diarrhoea may be followed by cos- 
tiveness, the dung being black, firm and scanty. The 
hair is rough and erect, shivering ensues, the head is de- 
pressed, the roots of the horns and fcrehead hot, eyes 
sunken, red, watery, with turbidity in the interior and in- 
tolerance of light, muzzle dry and hot, mouth hot with 
much saliva, the membranes of mouth, nose and vagina 
bluish-red, pulse rapid, impulse of heart weak, breathing 



Diseases of the Respiratory Organs. 171 

hurried, cough, urine scanty and high-colored and surface of 
the body alternately hot and cold. In twenty-four hours 
all the symptoms are aggravated, the nose discharges a 
slimy fluid, the forehead is warmer, and duller on percus- 
sion, the mouth covered with dark-red blotches from which 
the cuticle soon peels off leaving raw sores, appetite is 
completely lost, dung and urine passed with much pain 
and straining and there is general stiffness and indisposi- 
tion to move. From the fourth to the sixth day ulcers 
appear on the nose and muzzle, swellings take place be- 
neath the jaws, chest and abdomen, and on the legs, the 
skin may even slough off in patches, a foetid saliva drivels 
from the mouth and a stinking diarrhoea succeeds the cos- 
tiveness. Death usually ensues from the eighth to the 
tenth day, preceded perhaps by convulsions or signs of 
suffocation. The disease strongly resembles the Russian 
Cattle Plague but is rarely contagious. 

Treatment. Clear out the bowels by a laxative (olive 
oil and laudanum), following this up by slightly stimulat- 
ing diuretics (sweet spirits of nitre, liquor of acetate of 
ammonia,) with antiseptics (chlorate of potassa, bichro- 
mate of potassa, hydrochloric acid). "Wet cloths may be 
kept on the head, the mouth and nose sponged with very 
weak solutions of carbolic acid, and only soft mashes and 
sliced or pulped roots allowed. 

SOEE-THEOAT. 

This may be confined to the larynx or upper end of the 
windpipe (laryngitis), or the pharynx or membranous 
pouch through which air and food both pass at the back 
of the mouth (pharyngitis), or the whole may be involved 
(laryngo-pharyngitis). There are, besides, the sore-throats 
connected with specific diseases (croup, diphtheria, in- 
fluenza, strangles, distemper and purpura). 

The causes of simple sore-throat are the same as those 
of nasal catarrh. Bots in the throat may cause it ir 
horses. 



172 The Farmer } s Veterinary Adviser. 

Symptoms. The nose is raised and protruded, the heac 
being carried stiffly and more in a line with the neck than 
usual, and there is swelling of the throat or beneath the 
roots of the ears. There is cough, hard in laryngitis, and 
dry and husky in pharyngitis, and, later, loose and gur- 
gling in both diseases. With laryngitis there is much ten- 
derness to touch, and, in the early stages, a loud, harsh 
blowing sound which may become loose and rattling as 
the disease advances. With pharyngitis there is a little 
tenderness, but difficulty in swallowing, chewed morsels 
being often dropped again and water rejected through the 
nose. The discharge from the nose is more glairy than in 
nasal catarrh or bronchitis, and on its appearance the act- 
ive fever usually subsides in great part. If there is much 
redness of the membrane of the nose, and high fever, the 
case is likely to be severe, and the same is true of cases with 
a painful, paroxysmal cough. 

In Chronic Sore-throat there may appear to be general 
good health, but a cough comes on in paroxysms when the 
patient comes into the cold air, drinks cold water, eats dry 
oats or dusty hay or undergoes active exertion. There are 
also more or less tenderness and wheezing or rattling in 
the throat, and sometimes slight swelling. 

Treatment. Rest in a clean, dry, airy stable or box. 
Clothe warmly and flannel bandage the legs if cold or 
tending to shiver. Tie a rug or sheep-skin with wool in 
around the neck. Steam the nose as for strangles. Unless 
the fever and pulse are low or the affection of an influenza 
type, a laxative is usually beneficial (horse, aloes; ox 
and sheep, Glauber salts ; dog and pig, castor oil ;) following 
up with nitre or acetate of potassa in the water, and ano- 
dynes as electuaries. Solid extract of belladonna 4 drs. ; 
tannic acid 1 dr. ; bisulphite of soda 4 drs. ; honey or 
syrup 5 oz. ; mix. Dose — horse and ox a piece as large as 
a hickory nut ; sheep one-fourth, dog one-tenth of this bulk, 
thrice daily. To be smeared on the back teeth and swal- 
lowed at leisure. 



Diseases of the Respiratory Organs. 173 

In most cases, a thin pulp, made with mustard and 
water, should be well rubbed in around the throat as soon 
as the bowels respond, and covered up for two hours, but. 
in the most severe, this may be preceded for a day or twc 
by a linseed poultice. The diet throughout must be 
green, soft mashes or roots. 

CROUP. 

Especially seen in young animals (calves, lambs, foals,) 
in cold and damp or high exposed localities. The symp- 
toms are those of severe sore-throat (laryngitis) coming on 
very suddenly with hard croupy cough and dry wheezing 
breathing, worse at one time than another or heard only 
at particular times of the day (morning, night,) when 
spasms of the larynx come on. But the most characteris- 
tic symptom is the formation of albuminoid false mem- 
branes as white films or pellicles in the throat, and which 
are discharged in shreds on the second or third day. 
Fever runs very high, pulse ninety to one hundred, tem- 
perature 107°, and even higher. 

Treatment. Give a warm, well-aired building, with 
water- vapor set free in the atmosphere, if possible ; warm 
clothing, a laxative (sulphate of soda) with antispasmodic 
(laudanum, aconite, chloral-hydrate, lobelia) ; follow up 
with small doses of sulphate of soda, chlorate of potassa 
and antispasmodics, giving each dose in well-boiled linseed 
tea, slippery elm or marsh-mallow. Blister the neck ac- 
tively (mustard, with or without oil of turpentine,) and, if 
necessary, swab out the throat with a solution of nitrate 
of silver ten grs., water one oz., applied by a small sponge 
immovably tied on a piece of whalebone. In the worst 
cases suffocation must be obviated by opening the wind- 
pipe in the middle of the neck and inserting a tube to 
^reathe through. In horses a ring must not be completely 
cut across, but a semicircular piece cut out of each of two 
adjacent ones. Sometimes stimulants (wine whey, car- 
bonate of ammonia,) and tonics (gentian, cinchona,) must 
be used to sustain the failing strength. 



174 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

CROUP OK ROUP VS. FOWLS. 

Causes. Probably similar to those acting on quadrupeds. 
Exciting diet (wheat, buckwheat, oats,) seems at times in- 
jurious. ISFewly- arrived fowls are most liable to contract it, 
yet it does not always seem contagious in the ordinary sense, 
but rather inherent in soil, locality or conditions of life. 

Syjwptoms. Dullness, sleepiness, neglect of food, ruffled 
feathers, unsteady walk, quickened breathing, with a hoarse 
wheeze, and an occasional loud crowing noise. On the tongue, 
at the angle of union of the beak, or in the throat appear 
yellowish white films {false membranes) firmly adherent to a 
reddened surface, and raw sores where these have been de- 
tached. The nostrils may be completely plugged with swell- 
ing and discharge so that breath can only be drawn through 
the open bill. The inflammation may extend along the wind- 
pipe to the aerial cavities and lungs, or along the gullet to 
the intestines. In the first case, death may take place from 
suffocation, and in the second, from diarrhoea, and as early 
as in twenty -four hours. Toward the end of an outbreak, 
the malady may last twenty days and still prove fatal. False 
membranes may form on other distant parts of the body, but 
especially the comb, wattles, eye, or on accidental sores. 

Treatment. Disuse raw grain, and feed on vegetables, 
and puddings made of well-boiled oat, barley or Indian meal. 
Dissolve carbonate or sulphate of soda, or chlorate of potassa 
freely in the water drunk, remove the false membranes with 
a feather or forceps and apply to the surface with a feather 
the nitrate of silver lotion advised for croup in quadrupeds. 
If diarrhoea supervenes, give a teaspoonful of quinia wine 
thrice a day. It is all-important to change the run of the 
chickens for a time at least. 

DIPHTHERIA. 

This is seen in calves, pigs, horses, rabbits, mice, rats, kit- 
tens, guinea-pigs, hens and ducks. It is undoubtedly con- 
tagious, yet one attack does not protect against a second. In 
the false membranes, blood, and internal organs (spleen, liver, 
kidney, etc.) are found spherical and rod bacteria (strepto- 



Diseases of the Respiratory Organs. 175 

coccus and bacillus), which convey the disease to susceptible 
animals after a •number of artificial cultures (Loeffler). 
Though not always inoculable from one genus to another, 
there are many cases of such interchange, accidental and ex- 
perimental, and in these man has reciprocated freely with the 
lower animals. The special potency of the poison, the re- 
ceptivity of the subject, and the unwholesome condition of 
the surroundings have much to do with the result. Close, 
filthy pens, and want of care, strongly predispose. The poi- 
son is easily carried in milk. 

Symptoms. Sudden illness, with sore-throat and extreme 
weakness and stiffness of back and loins. The pig moves 
slowly and crouchingly with raised head, open dry mouth, 
hoarse nasal grunt, livid tongue, and red swollen throat with 
grayish-white patches of false membranes. The eyes are 
dull and sunken, and the appetite gone. In a few hours all 
the structures of throat and nose are involved, there is much 
swelling and threatened suffocation and shreds of false mem- 
brane are coughed up. The patient remains down, sits on 
his haunches, or leans on the fence and usually perishes in 
a fit of coughing. In other genera there is violent sore- 
throat (at first often without fever), swelling of throat and 
glands, difficult swallowing and breathing, and later cough- 
ing up of false membranes. The false membranes also ap- 
pear on superficial sores, while in some cases the poison acts 
especially on the internal organs. Muscular pains, weakness 
and paralysis often follow. 

Treatment. Must be early to succeed, hence, examine the 
throat for false membranes in all cases of sore- throat in pigs, 
holding the animal with a noose around the upper jaw. If 
white patches are seen, apply at once and freely the nitrate 
of silver lotion advised for croup, and repeat as often as may 
seem necessary to keep the diseased growths in check. Tinct- 
ure of muriate of iron, with as much chlorate of potash as it 
will dissolve, may be diluted in water to a strong astringent 
wash and given every hour. The bowels may be freely 
opened by a purgative, and tincture of the muriate of iron 
and nitre given thrice a day in a tablespoonful of cold water. 



176 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

Great attention must be given to the comfort and to secure 
pure air, and soft, easily-digestible food for some time. 

CHRONIC ROARING EST HORSES. 

This is a wheezing, whistling, or hoarse rasping sound 
made in the upper part of the windpipe (larynx) in breath ^ 
ing and especially when excited. It is usually due to pa- 
ralysis and wasting of the muscles on the left side of the 
larynx and which open the channel for the air, and in such 
cases the noise is only made in drawing air in. But any 
obstruction in the large air-tubes will give rise to roaring, 
heard most commonly in both inspiration and expiration. 
Thus palsy of the nostrils, fracture and depression of the 
bones of the nose, tumors in the nose, throat, windpipe or 
bronchi, false membranes extending across* the air-passages, 
dropsical swelling about the throat, and in stallions undue 
accumulations of fat, may give rise to it. In the typical form 
with palsy of the laryngeal muscles the animal grunts 
(groans) when led up to a wall and a feint is made to strike 
him on the ribs. If galloped up a steep hill or over a newly- 
plowed field, or even for some distance on level ground, 
the roaring is strikingly brought out. The same holds 
good if made to draw a heavy load or one with the wheels 
dragged. 

Treatment. In incipient cases with simple thickening of 
the mucous membrane, benefit may arise from swabbing out 
the larynx with nitrate of silver solution, as recommended 
for croup, or firing the skin over the throat with a red-hot 
iron. But if the muscles are wasted and fatty these means 
will be fruitless, and we must look to mechanical or surgical 
measures for help. Pads attached to the nose-band of the 
bridle, and so arranged that they will lie on the false nostrils 
and check somewhat the ingress of air, will enable many 
roarers to do moderate work with comparative comfort. In 
the worst cases, in which the animal is rendered useless, 
tracheotomy may be performed and the animal made to 
breathe through a tube inserted in the middle of the neck. 
Or finally, the larynx may be laid open with the knife, and 



Diseases of the Hesjnratory Organs 177 

the flap of gristle (arytenoid), which is drawn in, valve-like, 
over the opening by the current of air, cut off. 

Some cases of roaring due to feeding on vetches (Za- 
thyrus Sativa or Cicero) may be cured by changing the 
feed, and giving some doses of nux vomica. Others due to 
dropsical effusions appear intermittently and may be bene- 
fited by tonics and iodide of potassium, with hard, dry feed- 
in o- and exercise. Tumors and other mechanical obstructions 
must be removed with the knife. 

Finally, roaring is often hereditary in horses with a nar- 
row space between the jaws and thick, short neck, with badly 
set on head, and such should be rejected for breeding pur- 
poses. 

BRONCHITIS. 

Inflammation of the large air-tubes within the lungs. It 
may be looked upon as an extension downward of nasal ca- 
tarrh or sore-throat and frequently supervenes on one or the 
other of these. Otherwise it owns the same general causes 
with these affections. It may also attend on influenza, 
strangles, contagious pleuro-pneumonia, distemper in dogs, 
tuberculosis, and parasitic diseases of the lungs. 

Symptoms. In mild cases there are dullness, impaired 
appetite, hot dry mouth, red membrane of nose, accelerated 
pulse and breathing, and a cough at first hard but becoming 
soft and rattling as discharge is established from the nose. 
Such may recover in a few days without treatment. 

In severe cases there is dullness, inappetence, hot dry 
mouth, increased temperature, rapid pulse, labored breath- 
ing with loud blowing; sounds over the lower end of the wind- 
pipe and behind the middle of the shoulder-blade. The 
cough is dry, hard, sonorous, and painful (barking), often 
occurring in fits and seeming to come from the depth of the 
chest. Percussion detects no change of resonance at any 
part of the chest, as in pneumonia. The membrane of the 
nose has a dark red or violet hue, varying in proportion to 
the general implication of the bronchial tubes and especial- 
ly the smaller ones, and there is drowsiness and drooping 
of the head in the same ratio. 



178 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

From the second to the fourth day a whitish discharge 
sets in from the nose, the cough becomes soft and rattling, 
the noise over the windpipe and behind the shoulder-blade 
less harsh and blowing, but with a slight rattle from burst- 
ing bubbles, and the symptoms of fever abate. From this 
time improvement dates, and recovery may be complete in 
two or three weeks. 

Solipeds stand obstinately throughout the disease, other 
animals may lie. There is no tenderness on punching the 
ribs, as in pleurisy. 

Treatment. Rest in a warm, dry, airy building, clothe 
warmly, bandage the limbs in cold weather and give warm 
sloppy mashes of wheat bran. A laxative is often useful but 
if there is weakness, small pulse, prostration or any yellowish 
tinge of the mucous membranes, is to be rejected and warm 
water injections used in place to move the bowels. Give 
frequent diuretics (nitre, sweet spirits of nitre), anodynes 
(belladonna, lobelia, aconite), and expectorants (liquor am- 
monia acetatis, oxymel of squill, guaiacum, ipecacuanha, anti- 
mony, muriate of ammonia). The nose should be frequently 
steamed, as if for strangles, and inhalations of sulphur fumes 
mixed with the air, and not too strong, may be added. 
Mustard or other blisters should be applied to the sides of 
the chest, and repeated if any renewed access of disease 
seems to demand it. When fever has nearly subsided and 
there is left only a white discharge from the nose tonics 
should be used. (See those recommended for glanders?) 

When there is much prostration and weakness, stimulants 
(aromatic ammonia, carbonate of ammonia, wine, etc.,) may 
be required, even in the early stages. 

GLANDER HEAVES. CHRONIC BRONCHITIS IN HORSES. 

This arises from the same causes as the acute disease and 
often follows it. It is characterized by a frequent weak 
wheezing, husky, almost inaudible cough, often occurring in 
fits ; a white discharge from the nose, with white flocculi, 
like buttermilk ; great shortness of breath in exertion ; and 
a mucous rattle in the lunscs. Percussion shows increased 



Diseases of the Respiratory Organs. 1 79 

resonance over the lower and posterior borders of the lungs. 
The right side of the heart may be enlarged and easily felt 
beating behind the right elbow. 

Treatment is not very satisfactory in cases of old standing. 
Feeding should be mainly of soft mashes, roots and other 
laxative agents, but never bulky. Linseed, oat, barley or corn 
meal may be given wet and hay replaced by corn-stalks or 
good fresh grass. Finally give tonics, mainly arsenite of 
strychnia, or sulphate of iron or copper and tannic acid. 
Muriate, carbonate or benzoate of ammonia is often valuable. 

ACUTE CONGESTION OE THE LUNGS IN HORSES. 

This is always the first stage of Pneumonia but may oc- 
cur in a sudden and fatal form from overexertion in fat or 
otherwise ill-conditioned horses. An animal that has stood 
idle in the stable or has been rapidly fattened for sale, when 
taken out and driven or ridden at the top of his speed soon 
hangs heavily on the bit, slackens his speed, and if not stopped, 
staggers and falls ; or the exertion is passed through but the 
animal is seized when returned to the stable. He then stands 
with dilated nostrils, quick, labored, convulsive, wheezy 
breathing, extended head, staring bloodshot eyes, agonized 
expression, deep red or blue nasal membrane, and rapid, weak 
pulse often almost imperceptible at the jaw. Auscultation 
detects a loud respiratory murmur and the finest possible 
crepitating sound. The heart is felt behind the left elbow 
beating tumultuously and the limbs are cold, though perspira- 
tion may break out at different parts of the body. If blood 
is drawn it flows in a dark, tarry-looking stream and the 
lungs after death might be compared to a dark-red jelly. 

Treatment. Remove girths, saddles, and whatever may 
hamper breathing, turn the head to the wind, give an active 
stimulant (alcohol or alcoholic liquors, ammonia or any of 
its compounds, oil of turpentine, ether, sweet spirits of nitre, 
ginger, pepper), the first that comes to hand, in a full dose, 
following up with warm water injections and active hand- 
rubbing. In extreme cases prompt relief may often be ob- 
tained by bleeding from the jugular, but this should not re- 



180 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

place the measures already advised but should be added to 
them. An excellent resort when available is to wrap from 
head to tail in rugs wrung out of hot water and cover thickly 
with dry ones, the limbs being meanwhile actively hand- 
rubbed to bring the blood to this part of the skin which the 
rug cannot reach. 

If the patient survives and does not at once entirely re- 
cover the case becomes one of pneumonia. 

PNEUMONIA. INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS. 

Causes. The same as in other acute diseases of the chest. 
Also the result of overexertion and acute congestion, or of 
parasites in the lung. Lobular pneumonia has a micrococcus. 

/Symptoms. If not following an acute congestion as above 
described there is shivering, more or less severe according to 
the gravity of the attack, and usually a dry cough. This is 
followed by hot skin, with increased temperature, quick but 
deep labored breathing and a full but oppressed rolling 
pulse, redness of the membranes of the eye, nose and mouth ; 
the cough is deep as if from the depth of the chest but not 
so hard nor so painful as in bronchitis. The horse always, 
and the ox, in bad cases, obstinately stands with legs apart, 
elbows turned out, nose extended and usually approached to 
a door or window. In cattle expiration is generally accom- 
panied by a moan. With the fever there is costiveness, 
high-colored, scanty urine, in cattle, heat of horns and ears 
and dryness of muzzle, and hide-bound. Auscultation de- 
tects a very tine crackling (crepitation) over the affected 
part of the lung or there may be an area of no sound en- 
circled by a line of crepitation and beyond that by the nor- 
mal murmur slightly increased. Or over the dull spot the 
blowing sounds from the larger tubes or the beating of the 
heart may be detected. Percussion causes flinching or even 
groaning when the affected part is reached ; the space where 
sound was wanting in auscultation sounds dull and solid and 
the remainder of the chest retains its healthy resonance. 
There is no tenderness on merely pinching the spaces be- 
tween the ribs. By auscultation and percussion the increase 



Diseases of the Respiratory Organs. 181 

or decrease of solidification {hepatization) of the lung may be 
followed from day to day excepting in the parts covered by 
the thick, muscular shoulder. In this way aggravation and 
improvement can be noticed. A yellowish or whitish dis- 
charge from the nose comes on as the disease advances. 

Treatment. Give a pure, dry, airy box with windows 
or doors turned to the sun or away from the direction of 
prevailing winds, clothe warmly, and flannel-bandage the 
limbs, or even rub them with ammonia and oil. The hot 
rugs advised for congested lungs may be applied, and 
when removed let it be done a little at a time, and the part 
rubbed dry and covered by a dry blanket. Or a mustard 
poultice may be applied to the sides of the chest. Large 
injections of warm water and drinks of warm gruel may 
also be given. A laxative is often beneficial in the more 
active forms of the disease, but should be given cautiously 
as in bronchitis, and rejected when there is low fever, and 
much depression. Neutral salts (nitre, acetate of potassa, 
bicarbonate of soda,) should be given with sedatives (bella- 
donna, henbane, tincture of aconite, digitalis or white helle- 
bore; in pigs and dogs, tartar emetic), or if there is much 
prostration, or when the fever has in the main subsided, 
stimulant diuretics (sweet spirits of nitre, liquor of acetate 
of ammonia,) repeated three or four times a day. The 
sides should be blistered with a pulp of the best ground 
mustard in water, or Spanish flies, or in cattle and swine, 
mustard and turpentine, and the blister may be repeated 
with advantage in protracted cases. "When in severe cases 
the blister refuses to rise, the skin may be first warmed 
with rugs wrung out of boiling water and then the applica- 
tion of the blister made. Or a hot shovel held near the 
blistered surface may determine an active flow of blood to 
the skin and the rising of the blister. When well risen the 
surface must be kept soft by sweet oil or fresh lard to favor 
healing. In chickens it is advised to open the bowels by a 
teaspoonful of castor-oil, and shake one-twelfth grain of 
tartar emetic on the tongue twice a day. If very weak or 
prostrate give a teaspoonful of sherry thrice a day. 



182 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

PLEUEISY. INFLAMMATION OF THE MEMBRANE LINING THE 
CHEST AND COVERING THE LUNGS. 

This is common in all domestic animals and particularly 
in cold, exposed localities, which suffer at the same time 
from rheumatism. Otherwise it owns the general causes 
of chest disease. 

Symptoms. Shivering, followed by heat of the skin and 
even of the limbs, and partial sweats of the surface, un- 
easy movements, pawing and sometimes looking at the 
flanks, lying down and rising. If one side of the chest 
only is involved that fore limb is often advanced in front 
of the other. The pulse is rapid, hard and incompressible, 
and the breathing highly characteristic. It is hurried, 
carried on chiefly by the abdominal muscles, and has the 
inspiration short and suddenly checked, while the expira- 
tion is slow and prolonged. This character of the breath- 
ing may be well observed with the ear placed on the false 
nostril, on the windpipe or on the side of the chest. 
There is a prominent ridge on the abdomen from the outer 
angle of the hip bone to the lower ends of the last ribs. 
By handling the spaces between the ribs a point is 
reached which is exceedingly tender, the patient flinching 
and even groaning when it is touched. The ear applied 
to the same spot detects a soft, rubbing sound during the 
movements of inspiration and expiration. There is at 
first no other change in auscultation or percussion.. The 
animal often changes his posture or place as if seeking 
an easier position, and emits a short, hacking, painful 
cough. There is much less redness of the nose than in 
pneumonia or bronchitis, less heat of the expired air and 
no nasal discharge. 

In twenty-four to thirty-six hours effusion ensues in 
the cavity of the chest, the rubbing sound ceases, the 
catching breathing and ridge on the belly disappear, the 
pulse becomes soft, the anxiety of countenance passes 
away, and the patient may begin to feed as if well. But 
soon the pulse loses its fullness, and gains in rapidity, 



Diseases of the Bespiratory Organs. 183 

breathing becomes labored and attended with a lifting of 
the flank and loins, the nostrils are widely dilated, the 
nose protruded, the elbows turned out, the skin sweats, 
and there may be signs of imminent suffocation. Auscul- 
tation detects no sound over the lower part of the chest up 
to a given horizontal line, and up to the same level there 
is dullness on percussion. This shows the extent of wa- 
tery effusion. The pulse becomes weak, with a peculiar 
thrill at each beat, the limbs and lower aspect of the 
chest swell, the patient moves unsteadily and falls sud- 
denly to die. 

In other cases the effusion is re-absorbed and a good 
recovery is made. In others it ceases to increase but fails 
to be taken up and remains as a cause of short wind ; it 
may even give off gases, in which case a gurgling sound 
may be heard in the chest, or a sound as of drops falling 
into a half-empty barrel, after the patient rises from the 
recumbent position. In other cases still there remain 
false membranes attaching the lung to the inner sides of 
the ribs, or enveloping the lung in whole or in part, and in 
either case impairing respiration. 

Treatment. Give the same general care as in bronchitis 
and pneumonia. In the early stages of chill treat as for 
congested lungs. Later give a laxative (horse, aloes ; ox 
and sheep, Glauber salts; swine and dogs, castor-oil,) 
following it up with neutral salts (nitre, acetate of potassa, 
liquor of the acetate of ammonia,) in full doses, and ano- 
dynes (digitalis, aconite). These may be used in the 
fullest doses after effusion has taken place, and in weak 
subjects stimulants (sweet spirits of nitre, ether, alcoholic 
liquids, tincture of gentian,) should be added. Iodide of po- 
tassium may also be given internally and tincture of iodine 
rubbed on the chest. If from exposure use salicylate of 
ammonia. 

In very severe cases, a large linseed poultice may be applied 
over the chest, or it may be shaven and subjected to dry cup- 
ping, or an active blister may be applied as for pneumonia. 



184 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

If there is extreme effusion threatening suffocation the 
liquid must be drawn off by a small cannula and trocar 
(see Tympany) inserted at the anterior border and near 
the lower end of the ninth rib, the skin haying first been 
drawn aside to form a valvular wound, and great care 
being taken to prevent the entrance of air. The liquid 
should be drawn off only in part at first to avoid shock, 
and the operation repeated in a day or two. It should be 
followed by tonics (sulphate of iron, tincture of gentian,) 
stimulants (sweet spirits of nitre) and diuretics (iodide oi 
potassium). 

PLEUEO-PNEUMONIA, BBONCHO-PNEUMONIA, AND BE0NCH0- 
PLEUBO-PNEUMONIA 

Are common complications of the three diseases, bronchitis, 
pneumonia and -pleurisy and their respective symptoms 
and treatment may be inferred from the description of the 
uncomplicated affections. 

HYDEOTHOEAX. WATEE IN THE CHEST. 

Beside the effusion of liquid into the cavity of the chest 
in pleurisy, dropsical effusions may take place into it in 
connection with weak, bloodless conditions, as in flukes in 
the liver, disease of the heart, enlarged bronchial lym- 
phatic glands and other morbid states. The symptoms re- 
semble those of hydrothorax following pleurisy, only there 
is no fever, and there are the indications of those other 
diseases on which it is dependent. The treatment is es- 
sentially the same after the morbid condition which has 
caused the effusion has been removed. If that is incur- 
able neither can this be remedied. 

PNEUMOTHORAX. ATE OE GAS IN THE CHEST. 

This often attends on hydrothorax when the contained 
liquid has undergone some decomposition. More fre- 
quently it is the result of a wound penetrating the walls 
of the chest with its edges pressed inward so that they ad- 



Diseases of the Respiratory Organs. 1S5 

mit the air from without while the chest is dilating, but 
close like a valve when it is contracting. A little thus 
entering with each breath and none escaping, the lung 
is soon compressed into a small solid mass against the 
lower end of the windpipe. The same may happen from 
a broken rib having torn the surface of the lung even 
without any external wound. A little air escaping from 
the lung with each respiration the cavity soon becomes 
filled and the lung compressed and collapsed. 

Treatment is limited to the prevention of the introduc- 
tion of air through an external wound, should such exist ; 
the relief of pain by opium and other anodynes ; the man- 
agement of the resulting pleurisy on ordinary principles ; 
and the drawing off of the accumulated air by a needle- 
like tube and aspirator, or even by a small cannula and 
trocar. Spontaneous recovery often takes place, the 
wound being closed by inflammatory exudation and the 
air absorbed. In cases dependent on decomposition of 
the products, both gas and liquid should be drawn off and 
a weak solution of carbolic acid (one part to two or three 
hundred water) thrown in, in small quantity. 

ABSCESS OF THE INTERCOSTAL SPACES. 

This occurs especially in the horse as a result of pleu- 
risy, a diffuse swelling appearing at some part of the walls 
of the chest, tender and pitting on pressure, and, finally, 
Boftening in the centre, bursting and discharging a yellow- 
ish or whitish matter. The patient should be well fed, 
and poultices or warm fomentations continuously applied 
to the part until there is softening in the centre, when it 
may be freely laid open. Continue to support the patient 
by nourishing food, stimulants and tonics. 

DROPSY OF THE LUNG. 

This is mainly a result of valvular and other diseases of 
the heart. To percussion and auscultation it gives nearly 
the same symptoms with pneumonia, but there is an ontire 



186 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

absence of fever. The coexisting heart - disease also 
serves to reveal its true nature. Its cause being usually 
incurable, it terminates fatally in the majority of cases. 
Treatment must be altogether directed to the disease of 
the heart. 

APOPLEXY OF THE LUNG. 

In the lower animals extravasation of blood into the 
substance of the lung is usually the result of profound al- 
terations in that liquid as in Malignant Anthrax, Purpura 
Hemorrhagica, Typhoid Fever or Intestinal Fever. A por- 
tion of the lung tissue gives way and the blood escaping 
raises the membrane covering it (pleura) from a half to 
three inches above the natural level. The extravasation 
has the appearance of a fine jelly and often preserves the 
shape of the pulmonary lobules — a cone with the apex 
turned in. Being usually a complication of another dis 
ease, treatment must be directed to that rather than the 
local lesion. 

PLEUEODYNIA. 

This is a term applied to rheumatism of the muscles be- 
tween the ribs, which bears a strong resemblance to pleu- 
risy. It may be distinguished by the coexistence of rheu- 
matism in other parts and by the comparative absence of fe- 
ver, cough, rubbing sounds and effusion. Treat it like 
other forms of rheumatism. 

ASTHMA IN DOGS. 

A spasmodical affection of the circular muscular fibres 
of the bronchial tubes, occurring in paroxysms with irreg- 
ular intervals and associated with corpulence and disordered 
digestion, distended or ruptured air-cells, mucous dis- 
charges from the air-passages and dilatation of the right 
side of the heart. 

Causes. Usually in pet dogs pampered with highly sea- 
ginned articles of food, in excessive quantity, and deprived 



Diseases of the Respiratory Organs. 187 

of exercise. A change of food or temperature, a smart 
walk or run or indeed any exercise will bring it on. 

Symptoms. Corpulence is a constant condition at the 
outset though the subject may be emaciated and worn out 
in the advanced stages. A slight cough becomes frequent, 
hard and sonorous, with habitually labored breathing ag- 
gravated at intervals so as to threaten suffocation. Then 
the patient stands with open mouth, pendent tongue and 
staring eyeballs panting for breath and having his condi- 
tion rendered still more threatening by every change of 
position or cause of excitement. The frequency and se- 
verity of the attacks serve as a means of estimating the 
danger of the patient. In the intervals between these 
paroxysms may be noticed signs of indigestion, in a varia- 
ble appetite, perhaps vomiting, a tumid tympanitic (bloated) 
abdomen, constipation and piles. The skin is dry, harsh 
and bald in patches, the teeth covered with tartar and the 
breath foetid. 

Treatment. 1. During a paroxysm. Cause to inhale 
ether, chloroform, the fumes of burning stramonium or 
of burning paper which has been steeped in a strong so- 
lution of nitre ; or one or two teaspoonfuls of laudanum 
with 2 oz. castor-oil may be thrown into the gut as an in- 
jection. Or if there is reason to suspect overloading of 
the stomach shake a grain of tartar emetic on the tongue. 

2. In the intervals between tlue paroxysms. Check any ex- 
isting bronchitis or pneumonia as advised in the earlier 
pages of the book, and restrict to a very moderate diet of 
oat meal or corn meal mush, with skim-milk or buttermilk. 
Exercise well but in no case for three hours after feeding. 
Give a laxative of castor-oil twice a week. Wash fre- 
quently with soap, drying afterward by rubbing, and brush 
daily. A daily sedative (stramonium, tartar emetic,) is 
beneficial, but in advanced stages and weak conditions, 
vegetable tonics (quinia, gentian,) will be demanded 



188 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

HEAVES. BROKEN WEND. 

This is closely allied to asthma, but is more continuous 
hi its symptoms, and less paroxysmal. 

Causes. Overfeeding on clover hay, sainfoin, lucem and 
allied plants : on chaff, cut straw and other bulky and in- 
nutritious food. In Arabia, in Spain, and in California 
where there is no long winter feeding on hay, and in our 
Territories where clover is not used, heaves is virtually 
unknown ; it has advanced westward just in proportion as 
clover hay has been introduced as the general fodder foi 
horses, and it has disappeared in England and New En- 
gland in proportion as the soil has become clover sick and 
as other aliment had to be supplied. The worst condi- 
tions are when a horse is left in the stable for days and 
weeks eating clover hay, or even imperfectly cured, dusty 
hay of other kinds, to the extent of thirty pounds and up- 
wards daily, and is suddenly taken out and driven at a 
rapid pace. Violent exertions of any kind, and diseases 
of the lungs are also potent causes. It is mainly a disease 
of old horses but may attack the colt of two years old. 
Finally, horses with small chests are most liable and thus 
the disease proves hereditary. 

Symptoms. There is a double lift of the flank with each 
expiratory act, there being first a falling in of the abdom- 
inal walls and then, after a perceptible interval, a rising 
of the posterior part of the belly to complete the emptying 
of the chest ; also a short, dry, weak, almost inaudible 
cough, followed by a wheeze in the throat, and occurring 
in paroxysms when violently exercised, when brought 
from the stable into the cold air, or after a drink of cold 
water. The breathing is accompanied by a wheezing noise 
above all evident when the patient is excited by work, or 
when the ear is applied on the side of the chest. In- 
digestion is also a prominent symptom and manifested 
by. a ravenous appetite, even for filthy litter, by the fre- 
quent passage of wind from the bowels, and often by 
swelling and drum-like resonance of the abdomen . When 



Diseases of the Respiratory Organs. 189 

starting on a journey the subjects pass dung very frequently 
at first and after traveling some distance may go much 
better. Their muscular systems are soft and flabby and 
they run down rapidly in active work. Frequent aggrava- 
tions of the symptoms may be seen in connection with 
overloaded stomach, costiveness, a hot close stable, a 
thick muggy atmosphere, or a very severe day's work. 

The symptoms may be temporarily masked or hidden 
by restriction in diet, abstinence from water and the use 
of sedatives, but there remains an unnatural action of the 
nostrils, and a full drink of water, and above all a free 
supply of water and hay will bring back the symptoms in 
all their intensity. 

Treatment. Turning out on natural pastures or feeding 
cornstalks or other laxative food will relieve, and even 
cure mild and recent cases. Feeding on dry grain with 
carrots, turnips, beets, or potatoes and a very limited 
supply of water will enable many broken- winded horses to 
do a fair amount of work in comfort. Hay should never be 
allowed except at night and then only a handful clean 
and sweet. The bowels must be kept easy by laxatives 
(sulphate of soda 2 or 3 oz.), the stable well aired, and 
sedatives (digitalis, opium, belladonna, hyoscyamus, stra- 
monium, lobelia,) used to relieve the oppression. If a 
white discharge from the nose coexists tonics should be 
given as for chronic bronchitis, to which wild-cherry bark 
may be added. Tar water as the exclusive drink is often 
useful and a course of carminatives (ginger, caraway, 
cardamoms, fennel, foenugrec,) may be added with advan- 
tage. But nerve tonics and above all arsenic in 5 grain 
doses daily, and continued for a month or two, are esper 
cially valuable. 

No broken-winded horse should have food or water for 
from one to two hours before going to work. 

BLEEDING EKOM THE LUNGS. 

May occur in any of our domestic animals as a result of 



190 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

excessive plethora, overexertion, disease of the heart or 
tuberculosis. If in limited quantity, the blood comes from 
the nostrils and mouth of a light red and frothy and with 
coughing. If in greater amount it may fill the bronchial 
tubes and cause death suddenly by suffocation without 
much escape by the nose. 

Treatment. When brought on by severe exertion per- 
fect rest and quiet will check. Keeping the head elevated, 
cold applied to the head and neck, iced drinks acidulated 
with vinegar or mineral acids, are useful. Opium benefits 
by checking the cough, and in obstinate cases acetate of 
lead, ergot of rye, matico, tincture of muriate of iron, or 
oil of turpentine may be given internally three times a 
day. Remove costiveness with Glauber salts and keep in 
a cool airy place at rest for at least a fortnight. 

PARASITES IN THE UPPEE AIR PASSAGES. 

The Grub in the Head of Sheep is the larva of a small 
gadfly (CEstrus Ovis) which deposits the live embryo on the 

Fig. 12. Fig. 13. 





Fig. 12 — CEstrus ovis, Clark. Fig. 13 — Larva of ditto. 

margin of the nostril, whence it creeps up into the nasal si 
imses. It stays there during the winter and spring, often 
proving harmless but sometimes causing much irritation, 
redness of the nostrils, and a white, muco-purulent dis- 
charge, with dullness and stupor from sympathetic disease 
of the brain. To prevent the attacks of the fly the sheep 
should be fed salt from two-inch augur holes bored in a 
log, the surface of which is smeared with tar, so that they 
get a dressing every time they partake. A less satis- 



Diseases of the Respiratory Organs. 191 

factory method is to turn up a furrow in the pasture so 
that the sheep may push their noses into the ground when 
attacked. 

Treatment. Place in a warm building to tempt the 
larvae from the sinuses and introduce snuff, solutions of 
salt, vinegar or tobacco, weak solutions of turpentine, etc., 
into the nose to kill them or cause their expulsion by sneez- 
ing. For such as remain in the sinuses the only success 
ful treatment is to trephine the bones of the face between 
the front of the eye and the median line of the face, or 
just in front of the root of the horn should that be present. 
The sinus is then to be syringed out freely with tepid 
water until the parasites are washed out. 

The pentastoma t^nioides is a species of acarus which 

Fig. 14. 




Fig. 14 — Pentastoma Tsenioides. 

lives in the nasal sinuses of horses and dogs, and in the 
mesenteric glands of sheep and other herbivora. If pro- 
ductive of much irritation in the nose it must be expelled 
by a current of water after trephining the sinus. 

PAEASITES IN THE LOWER AIR PASSAGES. 

The most common are the different forms of round 
worms which in certain animals (lambs, calves, pigs, 
birds,) may assume the dimensions of a plague and cause 
enormous yearly losses to a country. 

The sheep, goat, dromedary and camel harbor two round 
worras in their air passages and lungs : the small Stron- 
gylus Filay ia, a thread-like worm of one to three and one- 



192 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

half inches long, and S. Rufescens of considerably greater 
length. The calf, horse, ass and mule have the Strongylus 
Micrurus of from one and one-half to three inches long. 
The pig, the Strongylus Elongatus of eight lines to one 
and one-half inches long. Finally the bird (hen, turkey, 
pheasant, black stork, magpie, hooded wow, green tvood- 

Fig. 15. 




Fig. 15 — Strongylus Filaria, male, enlarged. When adult, should be at 
least ten times the length for this thickness. 

pecker, starling, swift, etc.,) have the Syngamus Trachealis, 
male one-eighth inch, and female one-half to five-eighths 
inch in length, always found united together, so that the 
male appeal s like a process from the neck of the female. 

The Strongyli in their mature condition inhabit the air 
passages within the lungs but they may be reproduced 
either in or out of the body. In the first mode the female 
worm creeps into an air cell and there encysts her- 
self and produces eggs or young worms already hatched, 
or she dies and the myriad eggs, hatching out amid the 
debris, the young worms finally migrate into the adja- 
cent air passages, grow to maturity and reproduce their 
kind. In the second mode the impregnated female worm 
is expelled by coughing, and perishes in water 01 in 
moist earth or on vegetables, and the eggs, escaping from 
her decomposing remains, may lie unhatched for months 
or even a year, or, in genial weather, may rapidly open 
and allow the escape of the almost microscopic embryo 
worms. These, in their turn, may live an indefinite 
length of time in the water, or moist -soil, or on vegetables, 
and only begin to grow to their mature condition when 
taken in by a suitable host with food or water. This is 
true of those of the sheep, goat and camel, of that of the 
ox, horse and ass, and of that of the pig. Only those of 



Diseases of the Respiratory Organs. 193 

the sheep, once introduced into the system, will maintain 
their place in the lungs for the whole lifetime of the host, 
though no more young worms should be taken in. That 
of the ox, etc., on the other hand, is more likely to be ex- 
pelled, and, therefore, often infests its host but for a lim- 
ited period. 

The Syngamus of the bird has probably the same history 
out of the body, but this has not been so carefully studied. 

Within the chest the Strongyli live in the small terminal 
air passages in their young or embryo state, in the larger 
air tubes when mature, and in cysts in the lung siibstance 
when laying their eggs or when about to die that the eggs 
may be set free and hatched. In the air passages they 
give rise to bronchitis, in the lungs to pneumonia and 
deposits resembling tubercles but distinguishable under 
the microscope by the presence of the elliptical eggs and 
the embryo worms. 

The Syngamus of birds inhabits the air passages and 
gives rise to bronchitis. 

In all cases the parasites are most fatal to the young. 
Although old animals continue to harbor them they prove 
much less destructive and are often unsuspected. 

SYMPTOMS IN CALVES AND FOALS. VERMINOUS BRONCHITIS. 
HOOSE. HUSK. 

These are essentially those of bronchitis, with the dif- 
ference that the whole herd is affected and mucus 
coughed up, containing worms either singly or rolled up 
in bundles. There is at first only a slight rather husky 
cough repeated at irregular intervals. There follows dry 
staring coat, embarrassed breathing and advancing ema- 
ciation. Soon the cough becomes frequent, paroxysmal 
and suffocating, with expectoration of mucus and worms. 
Or the cough is soft, loose and wheezing, and the patient 
is weak, hide-bound, with sunken eyes and pale, thin or 
puffy membranes, dropsical swellings beneath the jaws, 
chest or belly, and no appetite ; the sufferer may be found 
13 



194 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

apart from its fellows in a corner or under a tree, covered 
with flies and sinking rapidly into extreme debility and 
death. Intestinal worms (in cattle, Strongylus Badiatus, 
Sclerostomum Hypostomum, Ascaris I/iimbricoides, Tcenie 
Expansa, etc., in foals, Sclerostomum Equinum, S. Tetra- 
canthum, Ascaris Megalocephala, Oxyuris Curvula, etc.,) 
usually coexist to a most injurious extent, causing diar- 
rhoea and other irregularities of the bowels. 

In the worst cases death may result ten or fifteen days 
after the onset, though more commonly it is delayed two 
or three months and recovery may take place. 

Prevention. In localities and countries to which the 
disease is new the parasites should be killed out by the 
continuous medical treatment of the diseased animals, or 
if necessary their destruction, and the separation of all 
horses, asses, mules and cattle, from the infested pasture 
or its vicinity and from any stream of water running 
through or close to it ; as well as from all fodder, roots, 
grain, etc., grown on such land, for several years after. 
In infested localities calves and foals should never be 
pastured on land recently occupied by older stock of the 
same kind or allowed access to water used by such stock. 
Sheep, goats or pigs may be safely fed on such land. 
Avoid overstocking. Drain the land to clear off pools or 
wet spots. Keep the young stock from infested or sus- 
pected pastures while wet with dew and rain, and from 
clover and allied plants which by their moisture are liable 
to harbor the worm. Suspected beasts should be kept 
apart from the healthy and from healthy pastures until 
subjected to thorough and continuous treatment. The 
carcasses of the dead should be very deeply buried, or 
better, the lungs and windpipe removed and burned to 
ashes. All exposed animals should be well fed on a diet 
including dry grain, and should be allowed salt to lick at 
will, this being destructive to the young worms. 

Treatment. Feed liberally on linseed cake, rape cake, 
cotton cake, roots, maize, oats, beans or other sound nu- 



Diseases of the Respiratory Organs. 195 

tritious diet to which may be added a mixture in equal 
parts of sulphate of iron, gentian and ginger, in proportion 
of four ounces to every ten calves of three months. To 
destroy the intestinal worms, give every morning, fastirjg, 
a tablespoonful of table salt or an equal amount of oil of 
turpentine shaken up with milk. For the lung parasites, 
place the affected animals in a close building and burn 
pinch after pinch of flowers of sulphur on a piece of pa- 
per laid on an iron shovel, until the air is as much charged 
with the fumes as they can bear without coughing vio- 
lently. The administrator must stay with them in the 
building to avoid accidents and keep up the application 
for half an hour at a time. It should be repeated several 
days in succession, and at intervals of a week for several 
weeks, so as to kill the young worms as they are hatched 
out in successive broods, and not until all cough and ex- 
citement of breathing have passed should the animal be 
considered as safe to mix with others or to go on a healthy 
pasture. 

SYMPTOMS IN SHEEP, GOAT AND CAMEL. VERMINOUS BRONCHITIS. 

These are the exact counterpart of those in the calf. 
There is a short, dry, sonorous cough, with a frothy dis- 
charge from the nose containing worms or their eggs, loss 
of appetite, rapid wasting, diarrhoea, shedding or drying 
and flattening of the wool, excessive thirst and irregular 
or depraved appetite, there being a disposition to eat 
earth. In the advanced stages the cough becomes very 
harassing and death may ensue from suffocation. Intes- 
tinal parasites (Strongylus Contortus, S. Radiatus, S. Fill- 
colis, Sclerostomum Hypostomum, Taenia Expansa, and per- 
haps Sderostomum Duodenale,) are even more numerous 
and injurious than in calves. 

Prevention. All the measures advised for the disease in 
calves will apply equally well here, with this proviso, that 
the parasites only affect sheep, goat, dromedary and camel, 
so that they only must be kept apart, while infested past- 



196 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

ures may be safely grazed by cattle, horses, asses 01 
mules. Nathusius obviated the attacks by keeping the 
early lambs in sheds and boxes until May, and the late 
ones until autumn, and by feeding in the same places on 
roots and hay in wet weather. Abundant dry feeding and 
a free access to salt are especially desirable. 

Treatment. This is precisely the same as for calves. 
The tonic mixture (iron, ginger and gentian,) may be giv- 
en to the extent of two ounces to every ten three months 
lambs daily. For the intestinal parasites, a teaspoonful 
each of salt and oil of turpentine may be given in milk 
every second day, before eating if possible. Fumigate 
precisely as for the calf. 

SYMPTOMS OF VERMINOUS BRONCHITIS IN PIGS. 

Rayer and Bellingham supposed these parasites to be 
harmless to pigs, but my experience agrees with that of 
Deguileme, that they will accumulate in such numbers as 
to cause bronchitis and death. The symptoms are essen- 
tially the same as in other animals — the coughing up of 
worms and eggs being the only reliable evidence of the 
disease. 

Prevention and treatment are essentially the same as for 
lambs and calves. 

SYMPTOMS IN BIRDS. GAPES. 

Young turkeys or chickens a few days old frequently 
open the mouth wide and gasp for breath, sneeze and 
make efforts at swallowing. These movements become 
more 3onstant and severe, breathing is oppressed and 
wheezing, and the little patients grow languid and dispir- 
ited, droop and die. It is especially prevalent on old-es- 
tablished farms with large flocks of fowls. 

Treatment. The worms may be partly removed by a 
feather stripped of all its plumes except at the tip, or still 
better by a horse-hair twisted up so as to have a very fine 
loop. The mouth being opened the feather or hair is 



Diseases of the Resr)iratory Organs. 197 



passed into the opening seen in the middle of the tongue, 
pushed to the lower end of the windpipe, turned round 
several times and withdrawn, when a few worms will be 
found attached. It may be repeated at intervals and is 
still more effectual if the instrument is first dipped in oil, 
salt water, or a weak solution of carbolic acid, tobacco or 
sulphurous acid. The treatment is only partially success- 
ful as it fails to remove worms lodged in the bronchial 
tubes or air sacs. Cobbold made an incision in the wind- 
pipe and extracted the worms with forceps, while Bartlett 
succeeds with turpentine (or, better, camphorated spirit) 



Fig. 16. 




Fig. 16 — Syngamus Trachealis. Gape-worm, nat. size, and enlarged. 

smeared on the neck and which is of course inhaled. A 
removal from the contaminated ground, the supply of pure 
water (boiled if necessary) and an abundance of nourishing 
diet are essential elements of treatment. 

Prevention. Burn all the worms extracted from the air 
passages. Keep fowls from ground and houses which are 
known to be infested, until they have been soaked in a 
strong solution of salt or with crude carbolic acid or pe- 
troleum. Suspected water must be withheld or boiled. 
Avoid all green food from an infested locality. The car- 
casses of the dead must be burned. Young fowls may be 
raised safely indoors on the worst infested farms. 



CHAPTER VII. 
DISEASES OF THE HEART. 

Frequency in different animals. General symptoms. Palpitation, thumps 
Displacement of the heart. Cyanosis. Enlargement, hypertrophy. Wast- 
ing, atrophy. Dilatation. Pericarditis, inflammation of the heart-sac. En- 
docarditis, inflammation of the lining membrane of the heart. Carditis, in 
flammation of the structure of the heart. Chronic disease of the valves. 
Fatty degeneration of the heart. Tumors and parasites of the heart. Rupt- 
ure of the heart. 

These are much more common in domestic animals than 
is generally supposed. Though protected in animals from 
the strain consequent on the upright position of man and 
excessive mental efforts, the heart suffers from the severe 
physical exertions of dogs and horses and in all animals 
from its contiguity to diseased lungs and pleurae, from the 
increased force necessary to propel the blood through the 
lungs or general circulation when disease offers mechan- 
ical obstructions, and above all from the settling of rheu- 
matism on its valves and other fibrous textures. Dairy 
cows suffer greatly from pins, needles and other sharp- 
pointed bodies swallowed with the food and afterward di- 
rected toward the heart by its movements. High-bred 
oxen, sheep, pigs and even pampered horses are very sub- 
ject to fatty degeneration of the muscular substance of the 
heart and consequent dilatation of its cavities. 

GENERAL SYMPTOMS OF HEART-DISEASE. 

1. The -pulse in full grown animals at rest may be set 
lown as follows per minute : — horse 36 to 46 ; ox 38 to 42. 
)r in a hot building or with full paunch, 70 ; sheep, goat 



Diseases of the Heart. 199 

and pig 70 to 80 ; dog 80 to 100 ; cat 120 to 140 ; goose 
110 ; pigeon 136 ; chicken 140. In old age it may be five 
less in large quadrupeds and twenty or thirty in small 
ones. Youth and small size imply a greater rapidity : 
The new-born foal has a pulse three times as frequent as 
the horse, the six-months colt double and the' two-year 
old one and a quarter. It is increased by hot, close build- 
ings, exertion, fear, a nervous temperament and pregnancy. 
In large quadrupeds there is a monthly increase of four to 
five beats per minute after the sixth month. Independently 
of such conditions a rapid pulse implies fever, inflamma- 
tion or debility. 1 The force of the pulse varies in the dif- 
ferent species in health, thus it is full and moderately tense 
in the horse; smaller and harder in the ass and mule; 
full, soft and rolling in the ox ; small and quick in sheep ; 
firm and hard in swine ; and firm and with a sharp (quick) 
beat in dogs and cats. In disease it may become moie fre- 
quent, slow, quick (with sharp impulse), tardy (with slow, 
rolling movement), full, strong, weak, small (when thread- 
like but quite distinct), hard (when with jarring sensation), 
soft (when the opposite), oppressed (when the artery is full 
and tense but the impulse jerking and difficult as if the 
flow were obstructed), jerking and receding (when with 
empty, flaccid vessel it seems to leap forward at each beat), 
intermittent (when a beat is missed at regular intervals), 
unequal (when some beats are strong and others weak), ir- 
regular (when without any distinct intermission for a pe- 
riod equal to an entire beat the intervals between success- 
ive beats vary in length). Beside these a peculiar thrill 
is usually felt with each beat in very weak, bloodless 
states. 



1 The pulse may be felt wherever a considerable artery passes over a super- 
ficial bone : thus on the cord felt running across the border of the lower jaw 
just in front of its curved portion : beneath the bony ridge which extends up- 
ward from the eye : in horses inside the elbow : in cattle over the middle of 
the first rib or beneath the tail : in dogs in a groove running down the inne 
side of the thigh. 



200 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

Of these the jerking, intermittent, unequal and irregular 
pulses are especially indicative of heart-disease. The 
jerking pulse is associated with disease of the valves at 
the commencement of the great aorta which carries blood 
from the left side of the heart, and is accompanied by a 
hissing or sighing noise with the second heart sound. 
The intermittent pulse implies functional derangement of 
the heart but not necessarily disease of structure. The 
unequal and irregular pulse is met in cases of fatty degen- 
eration, disease of the valves on the left side, cardiac dila- 
tation, etc. A retarded pulse in which the beat of heart 
and pulse follow each other with a perceptible interval 
implies imperfect closure of the valves at the commence- 
ment of the aorta, or an aneurism on the aorta. A venous 
pulse seen in the jugular veins in the furrow near the 
lower border of the neck attends imperfect valves between 
the auricle and ventricle on the right side of the heart, or 
congested lungs but may exist in health. 

Palpation. The application of the hand over the chest 
behind the left elbow will detect any violent and tumultu- 
ous beating, irregularity in the force of successive beats, etc. 

Auscultation. The ear applied to the same part will 
detect a slight rubbing sound with each heart-beat in the 
early stages of pericarditis. It will also detect any mod- 
ification of the heart sounds. In health each beat of the 
heart is characterized by two distinct successive sounds, 
the first somewhat dull and prolonged, the second short, 
sharp and abrupt. The first sound is simultaneous with 
the contraction and emptying of the ventricles, the closure 
of the valves between the ventricles and auricles and the 
flow of blood into the arteries. The second corresponds 
to the completion of these acts, the recoil of blood in the 
arteries and the closure of the valves between them and 
the heart. The following table will show the significance 
of the various superadded sounds (blowing, sighing, purr- 
ing or hissing murmurs,) to any one who will acquaml 
himself with the course of blood through the heart : 



Diseases of the Heart 



201 



BLOWING. HEAET SOUNDS. 

Narrowing of the 
auriculo - ventricular 
orifice. Clots or 
growths on the 
valves. 

Strongest toward thi base of r Narrowing of the 
the heart. Heard along the < opening of the aorta, 
large arteries. V. 



Blowing murmur 
before the first 
sound. 



Blowing murmur 
with the first sound. 



Strongest toward the left of 
the heart. Not heard over the < 
great arteries. 



Narrowing of the 

pulmonary artery, or 

imperfect action of 

the auriculo-ventric- 

,ular valves. 

Blowing murmur i Double rushing sound heard r Imperfect action 
with the second-; over the great arteries at each< of the valves at the 
sound. V heart beat. I opening of the aorta. 

Blowing murmur r Double rushing sound in the r Aneurism (dilata- 
after the second ^ arteries with each beat of the 1 tion) of the aorta, 
sound. I heart. I 

Besides these the second sound may be doubled in hy- 
pertrophy of one ventricle of the heart. 

The sounds are like whispered ivJio, awe, ss, or r, very 
low but exceedingly characteristic. 

Other Symptoms, Besides the fever attendant on in- 
flammatory affections there are characteristic phenomena 
present in the chronic form of heart-disease. These are 
shown at rest or only developed under exercise. There are 
habitually cold extremities, dropsies in the limbs, and be- 
neath and within the chest and abdomen, difficult breath- 
ing especially during exertion, unsteady gait when hurried, 
vertigo, partial paralysis or cramps of the limbs. In most 
cases there is sluggishness, dullness and a tendency to lay 
on fat. Patients may be lively when at rest, but flag at 
work and are liable to sudden fainting or death. 



PALPITATION. THUMPS. 



This is sudden violent convulsive beating of the heart 
not connected with structural disease. Palpitations also 
accompany most acute diseases of the heart. The func- 
tional disorder comes on very abruptly, usually under 



202 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser, 



some excitement, has perfect intermissions, is manifested 
by abrupt knocking and visible jerking of the abdomen 
with the heart-beats, by regularity in force and intervals 
of successive beats, and by the absence of redness of the 
mucous membranes, abnormal sounds of the heart and 
dropsy of the limbs. If connected with structural heart 
dibease it comes on more slowly, is constant though ag- 
gravated at intervals, with a heavy, prolonged or irregular 
and unequal impulse of the heart, with red mucous mem- 
branes and dropsy of the limbs. The first form is bene- 
fited by gentle exercise, stimulants and tonics, the latter 
aggravated by them. Some excitable horses and dogs 
suffer under any cause of fear, and pigs as a result of 
many acute diseases, (inflammations, intestinal worms, etc.) 
Treatment. Quiet, avoidance of all excitement, and 
sedatives (digitalis) thrice a day will usually arrest. Then 
the weak excitable condition should be overcome by exer- 
cise, tonics and substantial feeding. In structural dis- 
eases these must be attended to as well. 

DISPLACEMENTS OF THE HEART. 

These are not very infrequent in the newly-born, the 
heart being sometimes lodged altogether out of the chest. 
There is no remedy. 

COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE TWO AURICLES. CYANOSIS. 

This is the natural condition before birth, but some- 
times the directing of the blood through the lungs fails to 
secure its closure, or some obstruction to the circulation 
in these organs (tuberculosis, congestion, etc.,) leads to 
its reopening and the arterial and venous blood mix. The 
blood being equally unfit for nutrition and the mainte- 
nance of animal heat, there is surface coldness, staring 
coat, puny growth, blue mucous membranes, and op- 
pressed breathing and irregular heart's action when sub- 
jected to exertion. A murmur usually precedes the first 
heart sound. The subjects die young or prove worthless 



Diseases of the Heart. 203 



when mature. Nothing can be done to remedy unless the 
disease is due to some remediable affection of the lungs. 

ENLAEGEMENT (HTPEETEOPHY) OE THE HEART. 

This is a simple increase of the muscular substance and 
may be confined to one side of the heart or to one ventri- 
cle. It is usually caused by some obstruction to the cir- 
culation through the arteries, or in horses or dogs by ha- 
bitual violent work. 

Symptoms. The heart's beats are more forcible and 
prolonged and the interval of silence shortened ; the pulse 
is full and rolling ; the first sound is low, muffled and pro- 
longed, the second sound unnaturally loud, and sometimes 
repeated if one ventricle only is affected ; the heart sounds 
may be heard over an unusually large area, the lungs be*- 
ing sound, and the dullness on percussion is equally ex- 
tended. The pulse is usually regular and if excited to ir- 
regularity or intermission soon returns to its normal stand- 
ard if the patient is left at rest. 

Pure hypertrophy rarely implies imminent danger and 
many hard-worked horses survive to an old age with 
greatly enlarged hearts. But if associated with dilatation, 
impaired strength, livid mucous membranes, blowing mur- 
murs with the first heart sound, and paroxysms of diffi- 
cult breathing it may prove fatal at any time. 

Treatment. If possible remove the obstacle to the cir- 
culation. Then adopt a restricted, gently laxative diet, 
perfect rest in fattening animals or only light work in 
horses, and the daily use of digitalis or aconite, unless 
there is extreme dilatation. Arsenic is also given with 
benefit, but in advanced cases, or those due to irremedi- 
able obstruction, no treatment is of any avail. 

WASTING (ATEOPHT) OP THE HEAET. 

This is much less frequent than hypertrophy. It may 
be due to compression of the heart and its nutrient vessels 
by effusion into the pericardium, or the formation of false 



204 The Farmer 's Veterinary Adviser. 

membranes, or it may coexist with a general wasting ana 
imperfect nutrition of tlie body. 

The Symptoms are the opposite of those of hypertrophy. 
There are the general signs of chronic heart-disease, but 
percussion which gives satisfactory results only over the 
breast-bone and in carnivora gives almost the sole reliable 
symptom — a decreased area of dullness. Little can be 
done to relieve, and that little directed to the removal of 
its causes. By keeping fattening animals quiet they may 
be preserved for slaughter. 

DILATATION OF THE HEART. 

This like hypertrophy usually results from some ob- 
struction to the circulation, but especially from a sudden 
extreme obstruction, whereas hypertrophy results from a 
slowly increasing obstacle. It is also exceedingly common 
in cases of fatty degeneration in overfed stock (cattle, 
sheep, pigs). 

Symptoms. Loss of appetite, spirit and endurance, 
faintness and difficulty of breathing on the slightest exer- 
tion, habitual coldness of the limbs, dropsy, unsteady 
gait, venous pulse, palpitations, weak tremulous heart 
impulse, murmur with the first sound, small weak irregu- 
ular and often intermittent pulse, and lividity of the 
membrane of the nose. 

Treatment. Unless the causes can be put a stop to in 
the early stages no treatment will be satisfactory. Ar- 
senic is sometimes useful in horses. Fattening animals 
should be kept very quiet and their progress hastened if 
possible. 

PERICARDITIS. 

This is inflammation of the fibrous covering of the 
beart and its reflection on the pleurae, and is due to similar 
causes with diseases of the lungs. It is also induced by 
influenza, pleuro-pneumonia, rheumatism, and wounds 
with sharp-pointed bodies (pins, needles, nails, broken 
ribs, etc.) 



Diseases of the Heart. 205 

Symptoms. General fever, staring coat, hot dry mouth 
(muzzle, snout,) dilated nostrils, excited, difficult breath- 
ing, double lifting of the flank with each expiration, the 
formation of a ridge on the abdomen as in pleurisy, ten- 
derness when pinched or percussed behind the left elbow 
(in ruminants and small quadrupeds over the breast-bone), 
a rubbing sound with each beat of the heart and the im- 
pulse of the heart strong. Soon, effusion takes place, the 
rubbing sound is lost, the impulse of the heart and its 
sounds are weakened and the area of dullness in percussion 
is increased. This dullness does not maintain a horizontal 
line along the chest as in hydrothorax, but is like an in- 
verted cone and changes its position with a change of pos- 
ture which is easily effected in small animals. Difficulty 
and oppression of breathing, protruded nose, staring eye- 
balls, pinched, haggard countenance, venous pulse and 
obstinate standing mark the advanced stages. Dropsies 
of the limbs and other dependent parts are also frequent. 
A painful cough is sometimes though not constantly pres- 
ent throughout the disease. Death may ensue in five 
days to three weeks, or the disease may become chronic 
or end in recovery. 

The chronic form is seen in the ox without any preced- 
ing acute attack. There is slight fever, oppressed breath- 
ing aggravated by exertion, weak, irregular, intermittent 
pulse, distant heart sounds, absence of respiratory mur- 
mur, dullness on percussion over an increased, cone-like 
area behind the left elbow, venous pulse and general 
dropsy. 

Treatment. In the preliminary shivering, treat as for 
congested lungs. Later, bleeding may sometimes be ben- 
eficial in strong subjects by relieving extreme difficulty of 
breathing and high nervous excitement. Usually it would 
be injurious. Give a purgative (horse, aloes; ox and 
sheep, Glauber salts ; dog and pig, castor-oil ,) foment the 
walls of the chest and envelop in a large mustard poultice 
until the fakin is well thickened, moderate the heart's ac- 



206 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

tion by digitalis four times a day and follow the action oi 
the purgative by diuretics (nitre, acetate of potassa, etc.) 
Ointment or tincture of iodine may be applied to the walls 
of the chest. In cases of extreme danger from effusion 
the liquid should be drawn off with cannula and trocar 
or needle-like tube, as in hydrothorax, the puncture in the 
horse or ox being made between the cartilages of the fifth 
and sixth ribs. 

In case of rheumatic complication use alkalies, colchi- 
cum, acetate of potassa and other agents advised for rheu- 
matism. 

ENDOCAKDITIS. 

Inflammation of the serous membrane lining the cham- 
bers and covering the valves of the heart. 

Causes. Inflammation of the valves in connection with 
undue strain in severe exertions or obstructions to the flow 
of blood, the rheumatic constitution or certain other un- 
healthy states of the blood. 

Symptoms. The general symptoms resemble those of 
pericarditis. There are besides, violent but unequal im- 
pulse of the heart against the left side, accompanied by a 
metallic tinkling, a blowing murmur with the first, or even 
the second sound, as soon as the contraction of the valves, 
or the clots formed on them, render them insufficient to 
close the orifices, and, if the disease exists on the right 
side of the heart, venous pulse, general venous congestion 
and dropsical swellings. The pulse, at first strong and 
sharp, becomes weak with the imperfection of the valves, 
in marked contrast with the continued strong impulse of 
the heart. The patient may perish from obstruction to 
the heart's action by clots on the valves, or from such 
clots carried on with the circulation and blocking arteries 
at a distance ; or diseases of other organs may supervene 
from the latter cause, or a recovery may take place with 
or without permanent alterations which render the valves 
unable to close their respective orifices. 



Diseases of the Heart. 207 



Treatment is in the main the same as for pericarditis, 
rest, laxatives, sedatives and blisters being mainly relied 
upon. As there is less danger from effusion diuretics need 
not be pushed to the same extent. In rheumatic cases, 
adopt antirheumatic treatment, and in case of clots on 
the valves use iodide of potassium and alkalies. 

CAEDITIS. 

Inflammation of the muscular substance of the heart 
can only take place to a limited extent in connection 
with endocarditis and pericarditis, or with punctures from 
sharp bodies and the like. Were the entire organ involved 
death would be prompt. The symptoms are those of acute 
heart-disease generally, modified by the exact seat of the 
injury, and treatment need not differ materially from that 
adapted to the two diseases just described. 

CHRONIC VALVULAR DISEASE. 

With the general symptoms of chronic heart-disease, 
there are blowing murmurs as described in the table under 
auscultation of the heart. This is a very common result of 
endocarditis and is irremediable. Yet affected cattle, 
sheep and pigs may often be prepared for the butcher by 
liberal feeding and perfect quiet. 

FATTY DEGENERATION OF THE HEART. , 

This is most frequent in high-bred stock (Shorthorns, 
Berkshire and Essex pigs, Leicester and Southdown 
sheep,) but may exist in any pampered animal. Some- 
times it is complicated by degeneration of the entire 
muscular system, especially in pigs. There are the gen- 
eral phenomena of chronic heart-disease and dilatation, and 
the condition is irremediable, though it rarely kills animals 
kept in perfect quiet. 

RUPTURE OF THE HEART. 

If from severe exertion this usually takes place througt. 



208 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser, 



the fibrous structure at the base of the ventricles connect- 
ing them with the large arteries. If from a fall or violent 
concussion the muscular walls usually give way, when found 
in a relaxed condition, or the laceration happens at the 
point of connection with the veins (vena azygos). Perfo- 
ration from ulceration is seen in cows in connection with 
sharp-pointed bodies that have been taken into the stom- 
ach. Death is sudden in all such cases. 

OTHER HEAET-DISEASES. 

The heart is further subject to a great variety of dis- 
eased growths and deposits and to parasites — Echinococcus, 
Cysticercus Tenuicollis (sheep and calf), Gysticercus Cellulosa 
and Trichina Spiralis (pig), JRainey s Cysts (cattle), and 
Filaria Intimitis (dog). 



CHAPTER VIII. 

DISEASES OF BLOOD-VESSELS AND LYM- 
PHATICS. 

Wounds of arteries — punctured, cut, torn. Arteritis, inflammation of ar- 
teries. Embolism, plugging. Aneurism, dilatation. Wounds of veins. 
Phlebitis, inflammation of veins — circumscribed, diffuse. Varicose — dilated 
veins. Lymphangitis, inflammation of lymphatics. Weed. Poisoned and 
irritated wounds. 

DISEASES OF ARTERIES. 
WOUNDS OF AETEEIES. 

Punctured wounds are rarely dangerous, as the walls 
quickly close and the few drops of blood which escape 
help to plug the orifice ; but there is danger of inflamma- 
tion and plugging of the vessel, and cold or warm fomen- 
tations with rest are desirable. 

Gut wounds, if only implicating the outer coats, soon 
heal and are rarely followed by dilatations as in man. If 
all the thickness of the wall is incised the result will be 
according to the direction. If in a line with the course of 
the vessel there is little risk and slight pressure will usu- 
ally check bleeding. If transverse or oblique the elastic- 
ity of the walls of the vessel holds the orifice open and 
bleeding is severe, the blood flowing in jets and of a bright 
red color. If cut completely across, the arterial coats re- 
tract and curl within themselves and in small vessels will 
often close the opening. 

To check bleeding the end of the vessel may be sought 
and tied, or a piece of silver wire may be passed through 
to the soft parts beneath it by the aid of a curved needle, 
14 



210 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

and tied over a cork placed on the surface of the skin. It 
may be untwisted and drawn out in twenty-four hours. 
Or a pad of tow may be made with a sharp firm point and 
gradually increasing to a considerable bulk (graduated 
compress) and tied over the wound with the narrow point 
pressing on the vessel. Or the orifice may be seared with 
an iron at a dull red heat. 

Tearing, stretching, hoisting, and scraping through arteries 
usually lead to retraction of their coats and complete clos- 
ure and these measures are sometimes adopted to check 
htemorrhage. 

ARTERITIS. 

Inflammation of an artery may be external or internal 
according as it affects the fibrous sheath or the inner lin- 
ing membrane. In the external inflammation there may be 
little danger, even if matter is formed, as the vessel will 
continue to transmit the blood so long as its inner coat is 
sound. But in internal inflammation the blood coagulates, 
layer after layer, on its inner surface until the channel be- 
comes impervious. This may cut off the blood entirely 
from the part to which the artery was distributed, leading 
to loss of power and substance, and in the case of the 
limbs to a lameness, which comes on whenever the animal 
is exercised, and increases with the exertion, but disap- 
pears with a short rest of ten or twenty minutes. Or 
small clots may be loosened from the mass and passing 
on block smaller trunks, causing circumscribed inflamma- 
tion at distant parts. 

Causes. Over-stretching of arteries. Plugging by clots 
from the heart in endocarditis, or from inflamed veins. 
Wounds, parasites, etc. 

Symptoms. Loss of muscular power and coldness of 
the parts beyond the seat of plugging, extreme tenderness 
over the line of the vessel at the inflamed point, and 
sometimes general fever. 

Treatment. Perfect rest, warm fomentations laxatives, 



Diseases of Blood-vessels and Lymphatics 211 

(horse, ox and sheep, linseed oil or Glauber salts ; pig and 
dog, castor oil,) and afterward diuretics and sedatives. 

The persistence of the plugging and lameness must be 
met by patience, the animal being turned into a small 
yard or paddock where he can take gentle exercise and 
live well, until the collateral vessels have had time to en- 
large and carry on the circulation. Three or four months 
will sometimes secure a tolerable recovery. 

DILATATIONS OF THE AKTERIES. ANEURISMS. 

These are mostly seen in the horse among domestic an- 
imals, and even in him much more rarely than in man. 
The causes are generally severe strains in the vicinity of 
an artery, or over-stretching of the vessel itself. They 
are also common in the mesenteric arteries of horses from 
the presence of immature worms ( ' Sclerostomum Equinum) 
in the circulating blood. Injuries to the walls of the ves- 
sels are much less liable to be followed by aneurism than 
in man, because of the greater plasticity of the blood, and 
the speedy formation of a covering of coagulable lymph. 
They are soft, fluctuating, pulsating tumors, effaceable by 
pressure, but reappearing at once. Being usually situated 
internally, treatment can rarely be adopted. But when 
superficial, compression has been most successful alike in 
the horse and dog. It is needless to recount the many 
other modes of treatment for such an unusual affection. 

DISEASES OF VEINS. 
WOUNDS OF VEINS. 

These give rise to the escape of a dark red blood in a 
steady stream. This is commonly to be arrested by pin- 
ning up the lips of the wound evenly, taking hold of each 
by one-eighth inch and tying them together by a little 
tow, twisted round the two ends of the pin in the form of 
the figure 8. Or several pins may be placed near each 
other and the tow twisted round them and from pin to pin 
in the same manner. Veins may be tied but this risks the 



212 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

occHrrence of dropsy unless you know that there is a free 
circulation by other collateral trunks. They may be com- 
pressed for a time until the wound is closed with lymph, 
a simple pad and compress being used, or the silver wire 
and cork as advised for arteries. 

PHLEBITIS. INFLAMMATION OP VEINS. 

This usually results from opening a vein with a rusty 
fleam or lancet, making the incision at the dilated part, 
just above a valve, pulling out the skin in inserting the pin 
so as to cause a flow of blood into the tissues beneath, leav- 
ing hairs or other irritants in the wound, or pinning the 
lips awry. 

Symptoms. Swelling of the wound, gaping and redness 
of the lips, and the formation of a hard painful cord along 
the line of the vein in an upward direction where the blood 
is necessarily stagnant and in contact with the clot al- 
ready formed. The exudation may be fibrinous with a 
tendency to contraction and obliteration of the vein, or 
suppuration may occur, in which case the matter must es- 
cape externally. Clots may be detached and washed on 
to plug the arteries in the lungs, and rouse pneumonia. 
or perfect recovery may take place with loss of the vein, 
and a tendency to swelling of the part from which it comes, 
when that is in a dependent position. 

Treatment. If from an inflamed wound after bleeding, 
take out the pin, remove hair, pus, clotted blood or other 
irritant, and foment with warm water. Then rub in, at au 
inch distant from the wound and along the course of the 
hardened vein, an active blister (Spanish flies 2 drs., lard 
1 oz.,) and tie the animal to the two sides of the stall, so 
that he cannot rub the part. If a vein is lost in the neck, 
never again turn out to grass. 

DIFFUSE PHLEBITIS 

Resulting from an irritated or poisoned external wound, 
or in the womb after parturition, is usually fatal, the clots 



Diseases of Blood-vessels and Lymphatics. 213 

forming on the inflamed lining membrane being washed 
on in greater or less amount, to set up inflammation in the 
lungs and elsewhere. 

DILATED (VARICOSE) VEINS. 

These are common over the distended hock joint in bog 
spavin and I have seen them in the posterior tibial and 
other veins but they are rarely or never injurious. 

ENTRANCE OF AIR INTO VEINS. 

If veins are opened in the lower part of the neck or else- 
where in the vicinity of the chest the suction-power may 
draw ini air in such quantity as to work the blood in the 
heart into a frothy mass, and block the minute vessels in 
the lungs, causing sudden death. There is heard a gurg- 
ling sound as it enters the vein and afterward tumultuous 
heart's action and a fine squeaking sound in the lungs, 
while the animal falls in a faint. The danger is not so 
great as is usually supposed, as it takes several quarts 
suddenly introduced to kill a horse. Care is requisite, 
however, to close promptly all large veins opened in the 
vicinity of the chest. 

DISEASES OF THE LYMPHATICS. 
LYMPHANGITIS. INFLAMMATION OF THE LYMPHATICS. 

This occurs in two forms, one a constitutional disease 
and the other a simple local affection due to irritation of 
a wound or the absorption of poisonous matter. 

CONSTITUTIONAL FORM. WEED. SHOT OF GREASE. 

This is seen mainly in heavy lymphatic fleshy-legged 
horses, kept at hard work on heavy feeding, and in the 
midst of this left in the stall for two or three days without 
any exercise or change of feed. Thus it is common on 
Monday morning or after one or two stormy days that 
have kept the horses indoors. It is the result of a 
sudden access of plethora, but it may occur in similar 



214 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

circumstances in over-worked and rather reduced horses. 
In either case it is due to an accumulation in the blood of 
deleterious products that should have been worked off by 
exercise. 

Symptoms. There is shivering to a variable extent, but 
very severe in the worst cases, greatly accelerated breath- 
ing, rapid hard pulse, general fever and stiffness in one or 
both limbs. Examination high up in the groin, by the 
side of the sheath or udder, detects enlargement and 
great tenderness of the inguinal glands, the patient usu- 
ally raising and drawing out his limb till he seems ready 
to fall over on the other side. Soon the shivering gives 
place to the hot stage, the surface burns and sweats, and 
the limb swells, the swelling extending cord-like down the 
course of the vessels on its inner side, and its lower part 
becoming the seat of an excessive exudation, which may 
fill it up to the body, and of two, three, or four times its 
natural size. If allowed to go on, abscess, sloughing and 
unhealthy sores may result, the patient may perish, or the 
fever may subside leaving the limb permanently thickened 
to almost any extent, and correspondingly liable to future 
attacks. 

Treatment. Mild cases may be entirely restored by 
giving the animal a fair amount of exercise. In those 
that are somewhat more severe, a smart purgative (aloes 
6 to 8 drs.) must be given, warm fomentations applied 
continuously to the limb, and walking exercise enforced as 
soon as the patient can be made to move. The purgation 
should be followed up by active diuretics (nitre, iodide of 
potassium,) and when the inflammation has somewhat 
subsided tincture of iodine may be applied over the swol- 
len glands. In the worst cases in vigorous plethoric 
subjects a prompt effect should be secured by a free bleed- 
ing from the jugular, until the pulse is softened, and the 
same treatment followed out as in other cases. Diet 
should be light and laxative (bran-mashes, roots, scalded 
hay, etc.,) and the water given with the chill off. 

For the chronic thickening of the leg, regular feeding 



Diseases of Blood-vessels and Lymphatics. 215 

and exercise, a bandage smoothly applied from the foot up 
when in the stable, the application of tincture of iodine 
every four days to the limb, and the internal use of tonics 
(iron, Peruvian bark, columba, gentian, nux vomica, etc.,) 
and diuretics (iodide of potassium, liquor of acetate oi 
ammonia,) will be beneficial. Some use veratrum. 

LOCAL FOEM. 

This results mainly from wounds, bruises (saddle or 
shoulder scalds), from injuries of unyielding parts (pricked 
foot, tendon or fascia,) and above all from the absorption 
of putrefying animal matter or other poison by these ves- 
sels. The same occurs from the specific poisons of gland- 
ers, farcy, etc. There are slightly swollen cords (red in 
white skins) extending along the course of the lymphatics 
and veins from the point of irritation or poisoning ; nod- 
ular, painful enlargement of the lymphatic glands along 
their course, and more or less surrounding pasty swelling, 
or even erysipelas. It may go on to abscess or diffuse 
suppuration, it may leave induration of the glands, or 
even the vessels and surrounding parts, or a perfect re- 
covery may be made. 

Treatment Rest, a purgative, and astringent lotions 
(acetate of lead 1 dr., opium |- dr., carbolic acid 1 dr., wa- 
ter 1 qt.) If the inflammation runs very high it may be 
expedient to use warm poultices to hasten suppuration. 
In case it arises from a poisoned wound, cauterize the 
sore thoroughly with lunar caustic or crystallized carbolic 
acid, and keep the affected parts wrapped in cloths con- 
stantly wet with a saturated solution of bisulphite or hy- 
posulphite of soda, and enough carbolic acid to give a 
sweetish taste. The bisulphite may also be taken inter- 
nally. In case of suppuration, open early and freely with 
the lancet. If the affection becomes chronic and threat- 
ens permanent induration use iodine ointment or tincture, 
well applied bandages, giving an equable pressure, and 
even blisters. Iodide of potassium, or in weak subjects, 
iodide of iron may be given internally. 



CHAPTER IX. 
DISEASES OE THE DIGESTIVE OEGANS. 

Their frequency and gravity in different animals. Stomatitis. Inflamma- 
tion of the mouth, — of the palate, — of the gums, — of the tongue. Thrush, 
Aphthous Stomatitis. Mercurialism. Warts on the lips. Laceration of the 
tongue. Cysts under the tongue. Tumors of the mouth. Cancroid of the 
lips. Cancer of the tongue. Supernumerary teeth. Wolf-teeth. Parrot- 
mouth. Crib-biting, wind-sucking. Displaced teeth. Overgrown and une- 
ven teeth. Carious teeth. Disease of the membranes of the teeth. Tartar 
on teeth. Dentition-fever. Salivation, slobbers. Salivary calculi. Salivary 
fistula. Inflammation of the parotid gland. Choking. Stricture and dila- 
tation of the gullet. Impaction of the crop. Tympany in cattle. Hoove. 
Bloating. Overloaded paunch. Impaction of the third stomach. Gastritis 
in cattle. Indigestion in oxen. Indigestion in calves, lambs and foals. 
White scour. Acute gastric indigestion in the horse. Acute intestinal indi- 
gestion in the horse. Windy colic. Impaction of the large intestines in 
horses. Chronic indigestion — catarrh of the stomach and bowels in horses. 
Vomiting. Depraved appetite. Foreign bodies in the stomach and intes- 
tines. Spasmodic colic. Acute hemorrhagic enteritis. Acute muco-enteri- 
tis. Croupous enteritis. Inflammation of the rectum. Diarrhoea, scour- 
ing. Dysentery. Obstruction of the bowels, — impaction, invagination 
volvulus, etc. Hernia, — diaphragmatic, mesenteric, umbilical, inguinal, fewi 
oral, ventral, vaginal. Eversion of the rectum. Piles. Fistula in anus. 
Imperforate anus. Peritonitis. Ascites. Gastric and intestinal parasites. 

DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE OKGANS 

The importance of these diseases in the domestic ani- 
mals follows an ascending series from the carnivora, 
through the omnivora and solipeds to the ruminants. 
The small capacity of the digestive organs in carnivora 
(dog and cat), the completion of the greater part of the 
digestive process in the stomach, and the facility with 
which vomiting is accomplished sufficiently account for 
their comparative immunity. Pigs stand next in these re- 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 217 



spects and last come the herbivora with their enormously 
long and capacious digestive organs, the slow digestion as 
the food passes through the bowels and the difficulty 01 
impossibility of getting quit of irritating agents by vomit- 
ing. In the ox and sheep there is the further complica- 
tion of the four stomachs, the first three of which are lit- 
tle more than macerating and triturating cavities, and in 
which an enormous bulk of food is continually stowed 
away. From their rapid collection and swallowing of food 
poisonous, irritating and unnatural objects appear more 
liable to be taken in by oxen, while horses suffer more 
from hurried feeding and from hard work immediately 
after feeding. Horses, too, suffer much from faults in wa- 
tering, as excess of cold water when hot and fatigued, 
causing stomachic and intestinal congestions, an excess 
after feeding grain, washing that on undigested to ferment 
in the bowels, etc. Again, all of the herbivora are espe- 
cially subject to digestive disorders from food that is un- 
naturally grown, or spoiled in harvesting, so that in unfa- 
vorable seasons affections of the stomach and bowels may 
spread like an epizootic. 

INEIAMMATION OF THE MOUTH. 

Causes. Mechanical and chemical irritants. There 
may be wounds, bruises, injuries with bit or twitch, irri- 
tant vegetables, scalding food, snake and leech bites, stings 
of insects, injuries from ropes tied round the lower jaw 
and tongue, from giving "weak lye" and other irritants, 
especially to the horse, which can resist swallowing liquids 
as long as he chooses, from pricks with thorns, needles 
and other sharp-pointed bodies, from cutting, decay, over- 
growth or irregularity of the teeth, from rough dragging 
upon the tongue, from the use of mercury and other sali- 
vating drugs, from parasitic growths, and from some spe- 
cific fevers (aphthous fever, Rinderpest, etc.) 

Symptoms of General Infiammatior. of the Mouth. Diffi- 
culty in taking in food and water ; swollen, rigid tender 



218 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser 

lips and cheeks ; red membrane of the mouth ; slavering ; 
saliva often foetid; swelling between the bones of the 
lower jaw ; the formation of blisters or sores inside the 
month ; and sometimes swelling of the glands beneath the 
ears. Abscess or even gangrene may result. 

Treatment. Remote the cause whether irritants in food, 
drugs, sharp bodies lodged in the tissues, injuries by the 
bit, twitch or otherwise. If injured by lye, wash with 
weak vinegar ; if by acids, with calcined magnesia, lime 
water or bicarbonate of soda ; if by caustic salts, white of 
egg, boiled linseed, slippery elm or the gluten of wheat 
flour. Give the same agents as a draught. If from 
the bite or sting of venomous animals apply ammonia 
to the part and give it internally. In all the severer 
animal poisons the wound should be cauterized (see ca- 
nine madness). In simple inflammations open the bowels 
by injections of warm water with soap or other laxa- 
tives, or, if it can be done, give a mild laxative (olive 
oil). Wash the mouth frequently with cool astringent 
lotions (vinegar and water ; vinegar and honey ; borax, 
alum or tannic acid, honey and water ; water slightly 
sweetened with carbolic acid, etc.) Have fresh cool water 
constantly present to drink at will, and feed with boiled 
gruels, or soft mashes cold, or pulped or thinly sliced 
roots. Poultices beneath the throat and lower jaw are 
often very useful. If erosions and ulcers appear touch 
them repeatedly with a feather dipped in a solution of 10 
grains lunar caustic to 1 oz. distilled water. If fluctua- 
tion shows the presence of matter lance at once. If 
sloughing takes place wash with a solution of permanga- 
nate of potassa 1 dr., water 1 pint. If there is much swell- 
ing keep the head tied up. 

CONGESTED PALATE. LAMPAS. 

A red swollen state of the soft parts behind the upper 
front teeth, attendant in young animals on shedding of the 
teeth, or in older ones on digestive disorder. The taking 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 219 

in of food may be painful and awkward from the tender 
palate projecting beyond the teeth. 

Treatment. Feeding hard unshelled Indian corn has 
often a good effect. Scarify slightly with knife or lancet, 
for half an inch back from the teeth. Follow with astrin- 
gent lotions if necessary. If with costiveness or disorder 
of the stomach give a dose of physic. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE GUMS. 

If connected with the shedding and cutting of teeth, re- 
move those that hang partly detached and scarify the 
gums. For the other causes — diseased teeth and mercurial 
poisoning — see below. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE TONGUE. 

There are the signs of general inflammation of the 
mouth, with great difficulty in taking in food, chewing and 
drinking, and a swollen red tender state of the tongue 
which often hangs out of the mouth. 

Treatment. Search carefully for any sharp irritant 
body that may have penetrated the organ and remove it. 
Support the tongue within the mouth in a bag with tapes 
tied behind the ears. Otherwise treat as for general in- 
flammation of the mouth. 

THRUSH OF THE MOUTH. APHTHOUS STOMATITIS. MUGUET 

Is mostly seen in sucking animals. In addition to the 
signs of ordinary inflammation, there appear on the lips, 
cheeks and tongue, firm white patches, which on micro- 
scopic examination show the presence of a vegetable 
growth (oidium albicans). Wash the mouth frequently 
with a solution of bisulphite of soda or even of borax. 

MEEOURIALISM. 

Inflammation of the mouth, ulceration of the gums, 
loosening of the teeth and free salivation were formerly 
common results of the abuse of mercurials but are now 



220 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

fortunately rare. There is likely to be disorder of stomach 
and bowels, loss of appetite, bloating, rumbling in the 
belly, badly digested, foetid stools and great languor and 
depression. Use washes containing tincture of iodine or 
chlorate of potassa, and iodide of potassium internally. 

WARTS ON THE LIPS 

Are very common in dogs. Remove with scissors and 
cauterize the roots thoroughly with a pointed stick of lunar 
caustic. 

LACERATION OF THE TONGUE. 

Causes. Especially common in horses from hard bits, 
nooses of ropes, or rough dragging with the hand. The 
lacerated tongue may hang from the mouth. Sew up the 
wound with catgut previously softened in water ; feed 
thick gruels only, and wash out the mouth frequently 
with a lotion of permanganate of potassa. Any dead por- 
tion must be removed with the knife, but it must not en- 
croach on the living. The whole organ may often be 
saved when almost entirely torn off. 

CYSTS UNDER THE TONGUE. 

These are tense elastic rounded swellings and are easily 
remedied by a free incision with the knife. 

TUMORS IN THE MOUTH. 

These mostly grow from the gums and tongue, and may 
attain the size of the closed fist in the horse. Small ones 
may be removed with scissors, the larger with the ecraseur. 

CANCROID OF THE LIPS. CANCER OF THE TONGUE. 

The former of these attacks the angle of the mouth in 
horses and cats as an eroded unhealthy sore with hard 
thickened margins; the latter appears in horses and 
cattle as an increasing hard swelling with unhealthy open 
sore and giant cells. It should be excised when very 
limited. Later it is incurable. 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 221 



SUPERNUMERARY TEETH. 

In the case of nippers or grinding teeth these should be 
extracted or pinched out as they are liable to injure the 
gums, palate, cheek or tongue. 

Wolf -teeth cannDt be looked on as superfluous, being 
natural and harmless. They are insignificant teeth situ- 
ated directly in front of the upper, and less frequently of 
the lower grinders. Being present during the shedding 
and cutting of the teeth, when recurring inflammation of 
the eyes is most frequent, they are in very bad odor with 
people who cannot see the distinction between the mere 
coincidence and the cause and effect. They are useless, 
however, and may be extracted without injury, though if 
broken they may irritate the gums. 

PARROT MOUTH. 

Abnormal length of the upper jaw may lead to inordi 
nate length of the upper front teeth which project over 
the lower like a parrot's bill. If this interferes with graz- 
ing the extra length should be removed with a saw or with 
tooth-shears. But parrot-mouthed horses usually do well 
fed in-doors. 

CRIB-BITING. 

This is a distortion rather than a disease of the teeth, 
these being worn away on their anterior edge so as to 
show more or less of the yellow dentine in place of the 
clear pearly enamel. It is associated with the serious vice 
of loind-sucking (swallowing), and eructation, which leads 
to tympany, digestive disorder, and rapid loss of condi- 
tion. The horse seizes the manger or other solid object 
with his teeth, arches and shortens the neck and makes a 
grunting noise. The wind-siceking may, however, exist 
without crib-biting. It may be learned by standing idle, 
near a crib-biter, and alway goes on to disease and loss of 
condition. . . 

Treatment. Smear the front of the manger with aloeg 



222 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



or otliei bitters. Cover all exposed woodwork witli sheet- 
iron. Place a small revolving roller above the front of the 
manger so that the teeth may at once slide off. Apply 
the muzzle shown in the adjoining cut. In pure wir.d- 

Fig. 17. 




Fig. 17 — Muzzle for crib-biter. 

suckers a strap may be tied tightly round the upper part 
of the neck, though at the risk of inducing roaring. 

DISPLACED TEETH. 

Though loosened and partially displaced, teeth will 
often grow firm if at once replaced in their sockets and 
the animal fed for some time on soft mashes. If they 
cannot be returned to their natural situation they should 
be at once extracted, as any faulty direction will be a 
source of after trouble. 

OVERGROWN AND UNEVEN TEETH. 

The teeth of herbivora are liable to become overgrown 
into sharp hurtful processes along the outer margin of the 
upper grinders or the inner border of the lower, because 
the lower jaw is always narrower than the upper. In old 
animals and those having broken teeth, extensive over- 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 223 

growth will ensue from the absence of wear. In other 
cases a tooth is displaced and failing to meet with a tooth 
in the other jaw gets overgrown, cuts the soft parts and 
sets up disease of these or of the jaw-bone. There ensue 
the usual symptoms of disease of the teeth, with swelling 
of cheek or tongue, tumefaction of the jaw or eTeira run- 
ning sore, or a foetid discharge from the nose. The over- 
grown teeth must be reduced with the tooth-rasp, cut with 

Fig. 18. 




Fig. 18 — Tooth-rasp. 

tooth-shears, or with a guarded tooth-chisel. 

CARIOUS TEETH. 

Caries is quite common in the grinding teeth but rare in 
the incisors. 

Symptoms. Slow, careful mastication, and dropping 
from the mouth of half-chewed food (hay, green fodder,) 
which, impelled by hunger, the animal takes in but fails to 
swallow. Greedy swallowing of soft food, indigestions 
and colics from imperfectly chewed aliment irritating the 
stomach and bowels. The presence in the dung of undi- 
gested grain which has been swallowed whole. Un- 
thrifty, staring coat, hide-bound, pale mucous membranes, 
weak pulse, weakness, emaciation, and liability to sweat- 
ing, and swelling of the legs are marked features. The 
more specific symptoms are : swelling of the jaw-bone 
over the diseased fang or even a running sore if in the 
lower jaw, the accumulation of partially chewed food 
around the tooth, and especially between it and the cheek, 
tenderness of the tooth when touched or gently tapped 
with the finger, the presence of a black spot on some part 
of its surface, or of an excavated channel, leading from 
the wearing surface down to the fang, or between the 



224 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

tooth and the jaw-bone, this cavity being filled with putrid 
elements and giving out a most offensive and persistent 
odor. In some cases the tooth is broken in pieces. 
In examining the mouth draw out the tongue and turn it 
up between the jaws, or better keep the jaws apart with a 
balling iron. If the diseased tooth belongs to the upper 
jaw and is behind the first grinder there may be a very 
fcetid discharge from the nose, which with its attendant 
nodular enlargement of the glands beneath the jaw have 
led to the destruction of many such horses as glandered. 
Treatment. When there is much inflammation of the 
gums clear out the cavity of the tooth with the aid of a 
bent flattened wire and a syringe with bent nozzle, feed 
soft bran mashes only, and give a dose of laxative medi- 
cine (horse, aloes ; ox or sheep, sulphate of magnesia ; dog 
and pig, jalap ;) lance the gums and protect from cold for 
a few days. When inflammation is less severe, scrape 
from the diseased cavity all black, softened or diseased 
tooth, and plug it with gutta-percha softened by heat, 
moulded into the cavity and hardened by a stream of cool 
water. If there is a tender spot from exposure of the 
nerve this should first be deadened by caustic (crystallized 
carbolic acid and powdered opium). Where the destruc- 
tion is too great to allow of success by stuffing, the tooth 
must be extracted, and the cavity syringed out after each 
meal, until it heals up, and then filled with gutta-percha to 
prevent the adjacent teeth deviating from their proper di- 
rection. If very loose, the grinding teeth of large quadru- 
peds may be extracted with large tooth forceps, but if at all 
firm an opening must be made over the fang and the tooth 
driven into the mouth with a mallet and punch. This oper- 
ation requires accurate anatomical knowledge, especially 
in young animals. In small animals the teeth may be re- 
moved by ordinary dentist's forceps. After the removal oi 
a tooth in herbivora the opposing teeth on the other jaw 
must be occasionally cut or rasped down to prevent injury 
from overgrowth. 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 225 

DISEASE OF THE MEMBRANES OF THE TEETH. 

The membrane surrounding the fang or that lining the 
pulp cavity may become the seat of disease. There may 
be loosening, suppuration or shedding of the tooth, devia- 
tion from its true direction so that the outer edge of the 
upper grinder or the inner edge of the lower may get 
overgrown and injurious, or a hard deposit may fill up the 
pulp cavity, or surround the fang wedging it into its socket 
and setting up disease and swelling of the adjacent jaw- 
bone. These conditions may often be relieved in the 
early stages by soft feeding, protection from cold, lancing 
the gums, a dose of physic, and daily sponging of the 
gums with tincture of myrrh. 

DENTINAL TUMORS. 

These occur from the action of any irritant applied to 
the tooth ivory. Some years ago I removed a large mass 
of this kind attached to the second upper temporary 
grinder of the horse. It is usually necessary to remove 
the teeth from which they grow. 

TARTAR ON TEETH. 

This is common in dogs and may be removed by a 
wooden probe with a small pledget of tow dipped in water 
rendered slightly acid with spirit of salt. 

DENTITION FEVER. 

Considerable irritation and fever often attend on the 
cutting of the teeth in animals. Horses are most liable to 
suffer in the third year when they cut four front teeth and 
eight back ones, and in the fourth year when they cut 
four front, eight back, and four tushes. Cattle suffer less 
and mainly from the second to the third year. One of 
the first grinders which come up at this period is some- 
times entangled with the crown of its predecessor, causing 
much loss of appetite and condition and foetid breath. 
Pigs usually cut thirty-six teeth from the sixth to the 

15 



226 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

twelfth montli and are most liable to suffer at this age. 
Puppies and kittens suffer even to convulsions, between 
the third and the sixth months. The temporary tushes, 
should always be extracted if not shed before the perma- 
nent ones come up. 

The redness, swelling and tenderness of the gums in 
such cases may extend to the throat, causing fits of cough- 
ing, and retained temporary teeth are to be sought for and 
removed. Otherwise treatment consists in a slight lancing 
of the gums, washing with tincture of myrrh, using soft 
food, keeping the bowels open, and avoiding hard work in 
horses and dogs. 

SALIVATION. SLOBBERS. 

This is often a symptom of some other affection (aph- 
thous fever, dumb rabies, epilepsy, stomatitis, pharyngitis, 
dentition, caries and other diseases of the teeth, wounds 
and ulcers of the mouth, gastric catarrh, etc.,) or caused 
by irritant food and drugs (rank aqueous rapidly-grown 
grass, musty mow-burnt fodder, lobelia, wild mustard, 
colchium, pepper, garlic, ginger, irritants, caustic alkalies, 
acids and salts, and the compounds of mercury used in- 
ternally and externally). Mercurials are especially hurtful 
to cattle. Paralysis of the lips will cause a free flow of 
saliva, as will also irritation with the bit, and especially 
from chemical agents attached in bags to the bit. 

Symptoms. Free discharge of saliva in stringy filaments 
or frothy masses, frequent deglutition, increased thirst 
and disordered digestion. For mercurial salivation see 
stomatitis. 

Treatment. Discover and remove the cause, use astrin- 
gent washes as advised for stomatitis, and give access to 
cold water. In obstinate cases give a course of tartar 
emetic, opium, chlorate of potassa, or iodide of potassium. 
Rub the glands beneath the ears and between the jaws 
with iodine ointment 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 227 



SALIVAEY CALCULI. 

These are small concretions of earthy and organic mat- 
ter usually around some foreign body (a grain of oats 01 
barley, or a particle of sand) which has accidentally en- 
tered the canal. They obstruct the ducts and give rise 
to the feeling as of a tense elastic cord extending round 
the border of the lower jaw and upwards on the side of 
the cheek, or forward along the inner side of the jaw-bone. 
The pea-like concretion may be felt at the anterior end of 
the cord, and if there is more than one they may be made to 
rattle on each other. Sometimes matter forms and bursts 
and the concretion may be felt in the depth of the wound. 
Difficulty in chewing and swallowing, and indigestions 
arise from the lack of saliva. 

Treatment. Pass the calculus onward to the mouth by 
manipulation with the fingers, or this failing lay open the 
duct and extract it from within the mouth if possible. 
If it must be opened through the skin, first shave the part, 
make a small incision with a sharp knife, extract the mass 
and cover the wound with layer after layer of collodion, 
allowing as little exposure to the air as possible. Allow 
no food whatever for twelve hours and then only soft 
mashes and gruels until healing is completed. 

SALIVAEY FISTULA. 

This is found wherever a wound penetrates a duct of 
any of the salivary glands. It is especially liable to oc- 
cur from opening abscesses in strangles and from wounds 
about the lower jaw. 

Symptoms. A free discharge from the wound during 
feeding, of a clear, slightly glairy liquid, especially abun- 
dant where the food is dry and fibrous. Chewing is slow, 
difficult, and carried on on the opposite side of the mouth 
only. Digestion and general health are gradually im- 
paired. 

Treatment. If recent, shave the edges of the wound, 
bring accurately together and cover with collodion, layei 



228 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



after layer, until strong enough to prevent it from burst- 
ing open. If of older standing, a smart blister over and 
around the wound will often close it. Should this fail, 
the edges must be made raw by paring and the wound 
firmly closed by carbolated catgut or twisted suture. If 
the channel between the wound and the mouth has be- 
come impervious, a new one must be made and kept open 
by a thread passed through it and retained by being fixed 
to a flat button outside and in, until the walls are no 
longer raw and likely to adhere. Then the thread is to be 
withdrawn and the external wound closed by stitching, 
blister or collodion. 

In all such cases the patient must be tied to both sides 
of the stall, high up, so that he cannot possibly rub the 
wound, and diet must be restricted absolutely to soft 
mashes and gruels. 

In obstinate cases a forcible injection into the duct of 
the gland of a solution of 2 grs. lunar caustic in 1 oz. of 
alcohol, will usually destroy its secreting power. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE PAROTID GLAND. 

This gland, situated behind the ear, is liable to inflam- 
mation from mechanical injury and obstruction of its duct, 
as well as in strangles and other specific diseases. 

Symptoms. A hard but painful tumefaction beneath 
the ear, with more or less soft doughy feeling at its mar- 
gins, stiff carriage of the head, slow difficult chewing, and 
more or less general fever. 

Treatment. First remove any obstruction in the duct 
or mechanical cause of irritation, then purge (Glauber 
salts), wash the mouth with weak solutions of vinegar or 
chlorate of potassa, and cover the affected gland with a 
soft poultice, with a little sugar of lead added. Feed soft 
cool mashes and sliced or pulped roots only, and when 
the bowels have settled give cooling diuretics (nitrate of 
potassa). If matter forms let it approach the surface and 
point before opening, to avoid cutting any of the ducts 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 229 

and establishing a fistula. If it gets hard and insensible 
use iodine externally and internally. 

CHOKING. 

This is especially common in cattle feeding on roots, 
potatoes, apples, pears and the like, because of the habit 
of jerking up the head to get the object back between the 
grinders. Pieces of leather, bone, etc., chewed wantonly 
often slip back in the same way. Horses suffer mainly 
from badly shaped balls or sharp -pointed bodies, dogs 
from bones. Ravenous feeders will choke on dry chaff, 
cut hay, etc., being imperfectly mixed with saliva, and the 
same will happen in cases of diseased teeth or salivary 
fistula or calculus. 

Symptoms of pharyngeal and cervical choking. When the 
object is arrested in the throat or neck there is great dis- 
tress, staring eyes, slavering, violent coughing with expul- 
sion of dung or urine, continuous efforts at swallowing, 
and in cattle tympany of the first stomach, which may 
suffocate the animal in fifteen or twenty minutes. I have 
seen an animal die in five minutes when the object was 
lodged directly over the opening of the windpipe. In 
horses there is in addition an occasional shriek, and wa- 
ter returns by the nose when drinking is attempted. In 
omnivora and carnivora retching and vomiting are promi- 
nent symptoms. A careful examination along the furrow 
on the left side of the neck will usually detect the offend- 
ing object. 

Symptoms of thoracic choking. If the object is lodged 
in that part of the gullet which lies within the chest, 
cough, slavering and gulping may be absent, but there 
are efforts at regurgitation and the discharge of liquids 
by the mouth (in horses the nose). This, with the inabil- 
ity to swallow solid food, is very characteristic. Tympany 
is usually slight, and there may be tremors at intervals. 

Symptoms of choking with finely divided dry food. These 
are the same as for solid masses, according to the situa- 



230 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

tion, but in addition there is in the groove on the left side 
of the neck, a diffuse soft yielding swelling, provided the 
obstruction is situated above the chest. 

Treatment Sharp-pointed bodies lodged in the throat 
must be carefully sought for and extracted. Solid object-- 
in this region can usually be withdrawn with the hand 
Have the animal held with the head elevated into a line 
with the neck and the mouth held open with a balling 
iron ; then the tongue being drawn out with the left hand, 
the right is passed through the mouth into the throat and 
the middle finger hooked over the offending body so as 
to withdraw it. If lodged still lower it may often be 
worked up into the throat by pressure beneath it with one 
hand in each furrow along the lower border of the neck. 
A vigorous jerk at the last seconded by the action of the 
pharynx will often lodge it in the mouth, but if not it is 
easily extracted as above advised. 

Should this fail and tympany prove threatening lose no 
time in gagging the animal. A smooth roller of wood 
two inches in diameter is tied into the mouth by cords 
carried from its ends around the top of the head — behind 
the horns in cattle. Swelling never increases dangerously 
with this applied, and in a few hours the obstruction 
usually passes on. 

More prompt relief may be obtained by using a probang 
of leather or other material with a spiral spring wire in- 
ternally, the whole two-thirds of an inch in diameter, six 
feet long, and with one end enlarged to one and a half 
inches in diameter and cup-shaped. This is oiled and 
the head having been brought into a line with the neck, 
the balling iron introduced and the tongue drawn out, 
the cup-shaped end is introduced and pushed on until the 
obstruction is reached. Steady pressure must be kept up 
on this for a few seconds, when it will yield and should be 
passed into the stomach by introducing the probang to its 
whole length. If it resists leave the animal for an hour 
or two gagged, and try again. In the horse the probang 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 281 

cannot be safely passed without casting, and it should 
never be passed on until by examination in the furrow on 
the side of the neck, the operator has ascertained that it 
has entered the gullet and is clear of, and above the 
windpipe. For the small animals the probang must bo 
made correspondingly small. 

The use of whips and such like objects is very repre- 
hensible as being liable to tear the gullet. An effective 
probang may be constructed out of a piece of stiff new 
rope, a few of the bundles of the end of which have been 
opened out and tied back so as to form a cup-shaped 
extremity. After being used this may be hung up straight 
on several nails driven into the wall and will be ready 
for the next occasion. 

In choking with finely divided food the probang only 
packs it firmer, and gagging and time will rarely dislodge 
it. Pour water or well-boiled gruel down, and seek by 
manipulation to break up the mass and allow it to pass on 
little by little. Instruments have also been devised for 
extracting the obstructing mass. Faihng otherwise, the 
gullet must be laid open, the offending matter extracted, 
the wounds sewed up, and the animal fed for a time on 
liquids only. 

Horses are sometimes choked by eggs given by foolish 
grooms. These may be punctured with a needle and then 
crushed between two solid bodies on different sides of the 
neck. 

Prevention. Besides the more obvious resort of with- 
holding dangerous articles, the mere tying down of the 
head will prevent choking in cattle feeding on turnips, 
apples, etc. A loop of rope fixed to the ground is to 
be hung over the horn when such food is supplied. Solid 
food should be to a large extent withheld for a week aftei' 
the relief of choking, until the slight irritation or inflam- 
mation has subsided. 



232 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

STRICTURE AND DILATATION OF THE GULLET. 

Tliese usually coexist, the first giving rise to the second, 
because of habitual accumulation of food above the nar- 
row part. The narrowing results from mechanical injury 
in choking, etc., or from the presence of a worm (spirop- 
tera) which lives in galleries on the mucous membrane. 

The symptoms are the formation of an extended diffuse 
soft swelling along the furrow on the left side of the neck, 
when the animal feeds or drinks, and the subsidence of 
this swelling during abstinence. The only permanent 
treatment is by bougies or probangs passed daily, begin- 
ning with those that will just pass the stricture, and using 
them larger as the former ones begin to pass easily. The 
food must be restricted to soft mashes and gruels. 

Cattle are usually slaughtered when attacked in good 
condition. 

IMPACTION OP THE CROP IN BIRDS. 

Symptoms. Want of appetite, dullness, sinking of the 
head between the wings, ruffled plumage, and enormous 
and firm distension of the crop, easily recognized when 
the bird is handled. 

Treatment consists in pouring down tepid water and 
moulding the crop so as to force its contents a little at a 
time back into the mouth. This failing, cut the crop open, 
empty it, sew up the wound, and feed gruels or soft 
mush for a few days. 

TYMPANY OP THE FIRST STOMACH FN RUMINANTS. HOOVE. 
BLOATING. 

Causes. It is especially common in weak, ailing, or under- 
fed stock when put on rich luxuriant food, especially green 
food, in spring. Some food is dangerous, such as clover 
(white and red) ; green food covered with dew or hoar frost, 
soaked by inundations or drying after a shower ; diseased 
or frosted potatoes or turnips (roots or tops) ; partially 
ripened but uncured grain and crowfoots and other acrid 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 



233 



plants. It may be caused by overloading the stomach 
with sound fodder, by the presence of hair-balls and other 
foreign bodies in the stomach, by fever, choking, stricture 
or parasites in the gullet, tuberculosis, etc. 

Symptoms. Swelling of the whole left 
Fig. 19. side of the belly, often rising above the 
level of the hips and backbone, tense and 
elastic recoiling at once when pressed in, 
and drum-like on percussion. There is 
great difficulty of breathing, distended nos- 
trils, bloodshot eyes, open mouth, driveling 
of saliva, occasional belching of gas with 
loud noise, and frequent passage of dung 
and urine. The patient stands to the last 
and falls to die with ruptured diaphragm, 
or stomach, congested lungs and profound 
nervous shock. 

Treatment. Gagging is alleged to suc- 
ceed as in choking, but I have not tried 
it. Dashing a bucket of cold water on the 
body may give temporary relief by condens- 
ing the gas and favoring eructation. The 
hollow probang passed into the stomach 
as for choking will allow the escape of 
the gas. In urgent cases the paunch 
must be punctured with the first instru- 
ment that comes to hand, and the open- 
ings in the stomach and the skin kept in 
apposition until the gas flows out. The 
most suitable instrument is a cannula and 
trocar at least six inches long which may 
be plunged without fear into the left side in a 
downward and inward direction, from a 
Fig. 19 -Trocar and p 0m t equidistant from the hip bone, the 
last rib and the lateral processes of the 
backbone. The trocar being withdrawn the cannula 
may be tied in and left for hours or days. In the absence? 



234 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

of these a pocket-knife may be used, and should be kept 
in the wound until a large quill can be obtained and held 
in its place. A smaller trocar like that used for hydro- 
thorax in horses is suitable for sheep and goats. 

When urgent cases have been relieved in this way, and 
in milder cases without any such surgical resort, antifer- 
ments and antacids must be given ; aromatic spirit of am- 
monia, (ox 3 oz., sheep 1 oz.,) crystalline sesquicarbonate 
of ammonia (ox 1 oz., sheep 3 drs.,) oil of turpentine, (ox 
2 oz., sheep % oz. in oil, milk or eggs well mixed,) whisky, 
brandy or gin, (ox 1 to 2 pts., sheep ^ pt.,) ether, pepper, 
ginger, oil of peppermint, etc., in full doses, wood tar (ox 
2 oz., sheep ^ oz.,) carbolic acid or creosote, (ox 2 drs., 
sheep |- dr. in a pint of water,) sulphite, hyposulphite or 
bisulphite of soda, (ox 1 oz., sheep 2 drs.,) chloride of lime 
or chlorate of potassa. Antacids (potassa, soda, ammonia, 
and their carbonates ; soapsuds and lime-water,) check the 
fermentation by neutralizing the acidity. Care should be 
taken to see (by tasting) that they are not used in too 
strong and irritating solutions. 

A dose of physic is usually necessary to clear off the 
offensive food, and should be accompanied by a stimulant 
(sulphate of soda and ginger). 

Chronic tympany due simply to indigestion may be 
remedied by careful dieting and a course of tonics, (foenu- 
grec, oxide of iron, carbonate of soda and common salt in 
equal parts, nux 7omica 2 drachms to every pound of the 
mixture. Dose : ox 1 oz., sheep 2 drs., daily in food). 

For chronic tympany due to foreign bodies in the paunch 
Bee below. 

OVERLOADED PAUNCH. 

This differs from the last in that the paunch is over- 
loaded, overstretched and paralyzed by excess of solid food, 
rather than gas. Rich, tempting and unusual food (lus- 
cious grass, clover, lucern, vetches, tares, beans, peas, 
.grain,) is especially dangerous, as is food which ferments 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 235 

with the formation of a fine frothy mass, (potatoes, espe- 
cially diseased or frosted ones,) food containing a narcotic 
or paralyzing principle, (green Indian corn, partially 
ripened wheat, barley, oats, beans, peas, tares and grasses,) 
bulky, dry, fibrous, innutritious aliments, (aftermath mixed 
with old withered stems of a former growth, hay that has 
ripened before being cut, dried sedges and rushes, stalks 
of ripened beans, peas, etc.,) and finally musty, rusty or 
otherwise injured hay. Salivary fistula or obstruction 
and worn or diseased teeth may contribute to it. 

Symptoms. Develop more slowly than in tympany. 
There is dullness, sluggishness, raised back, hurried breath- 
ing, and frequent moaning. The abdomen swells, espe- 
cially the left side, but it hangs downward, has no absolute 
drum-like resonance on tapping, and pressure leaves a 
temporary indentation. As the disease advances there is 
the same difficult breathing as in tympany, frequent pas- 
sage of dung and urine, stupor and finally suffocation or 
death from nervous shock. If due to green food, diarrhoea 
usually precedes death, and a spontaneous cure may be 
effected by this or by vomiting, but only in rare cases. 

Treatment. In the first stages give stimulants and anti- 
ferments, as for tympany, with active but not irritating 
purgatives to unload the stomach. A pound each of 
Epsom and Glauber salts, 2 oz. oil of turpentine, and ^ 
drachm of nux vomica will be a suitable dose for an ox, to 
be followed up by stimulants, and in seven hours, if no 
relief, by a second dose of the same strength. If drum-like 
resonance at the upper part of the left side shows the 
pressure of free gas, draw it off by puncturing, and dash 
cold water over the body to encourage contraction of the 
paunch. Give active stimulants every two or three hours. 

If there is no sign of improvement but rather stupor 
and sinking, the only hope is in opening the stomach in 
the left side where it is punctured in tympany, enlarging 
the opening until the hand can be introduced, having two 
assistants hold the edges of the wound in the stomach 



236 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

against those in the skin, taking out at least two-thirds of 
the contents of the paunch, sewing up the wound in the 
stomach with the edges turned in. and that in the skin, 
and keeping on a little gruel and soft mashes for a week. 
This operation can be performed standing, the right side 
of the animal applied against a stone wall, and the nose 
held by bull-dog pincers or even by the fingers. It usually 
succeeds if resorted to early enough. 

IMPACTION OF THE THIED STOMACH. DRY MUREAIN. GRASS 

STAGGERS. 

A dry baked state of the contents of the manifolds is found 
in all feverish conditions, in torpid or inactive states of the 
paunch, with impaired or suspended rumination, in case of 
feeding on dry, fibrous, indigestible elements (bleached with- 
ered hay or that which has been over-ripened, or a mixture 
of fresh and dry grass in autumn,) on a sudden change to the 
over-stimulating fresh grass of spring, on smutty maize, 
cornstalks or wheat, on a deficiency of water, or a sudden 
change from soft to hard water, or on taking lead into the sys- 
tem in a metallic condition or otherwise. The most rapidly 
fatal cases result from green food, over-ripe but uncured 
grain, vetches, or rye-grass, and from lead poisoning. Breed- 
ing ewes when fed grain become impacted, stupid, delirious. 

Symptoms. Slight cases may be marked by failure to 
chew the cud regularly when recovering from a fever, a poor 
appetite, dry muzzle, dull eyes, spiritlessness, quickened 
breathing with a moan at intervals roused at any time by 
forcibly punching the closed fist beneath the short ribs on 
the right side. If it has lasted several days the fist pressed 
into the left side may detect the contents of the paunch col- 
lected in hard masses, and tympany is likely to be present. 
The dung is usually scanty and hard, but in cases occurring 
from fibrous or irritating food, this costiveness is preceded 
by more or less diarrhoea. The beast leaves its fellows, 
reclines on its left side, with the head in the right flank, 
and tends by-and-by to show palsy of the hind limbs, 
drowsiness and stupor, or delirium and convulsions. 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 237 



In the more acute cases, death may ensue in six hours. 
The animal is found apart, lying with his hea<? in his 
right flank, with red fixed eyes, eyelids half closed, and 
much drowsiness and stupor though he may still feed when 
raised, pulse and breathing accelerated, bowels loose 01 
torpid, hardness and tenderness under the right short ribs, 
and muscular tremors. Later the eyes glare, the patient 
seeks relief in motion, in a straight line or to one side 
regardless of obstacles, and pushing against obstructing 
walls or fences till teeth or horns are broken, bellowing 
loudly and in a terrific manner all the time. 

Treatment. For the simpler forms give strong purga- 
tives, (sulphate of soda, ox 1 lb., sheep 6 oz. with common 
salt, molasses and croton,) stimulants (ginger, carbonate of 
ammonia,) and abundance of water or watery fluids. The 
stimulants may be repeated at intervals of three hours, 
and accompanied by injections of warm water. If no re • 
lief is obtained in twelve hours, repeat the purgative and 
if any tenderness of the right side exists, blister it with 
mustard and turpentine (for sheep use ammonia and oil). 
If the kidneys act profusely, change the purgative, giving 
castor or linseed-oil. Even after free action of the bowels 
it is usually necessary to feed green food, roots or soft 
mashes, to give all the water that will be taken, and even 
to add slight laxatives to insure the perfect breaking up 
of all the impaction. 

In the acute forms of the disease with irritation of the 
stomach the blandest purgatives only (linseed, olive, or 
castor-oil,) must be used with nux vomica, injections and a 
blister on the right side over the short ribs, and cold w ater 
or ice-bags to the head. Should the victims become deliri- 
ous, fasten to a strong post round which they can move, or 
to a ring fixed in the ground. When recovery ensues, fol- 
low up with a course of bitt w tonics, (gentian, willow bark 
nux vomica, boneset, etc.) 



238 The Fanner 1 s Veterinary Adviser. 

GASTEITIS IN OXEN. 

The acute impactions of the manifolds are usually com- 
plicated with congestion, and the chronic impactions lead 
to it. Inflammation also results from over-stimulating 
food, (spring grass, clover, tares, green corn, etc.,) from 
dry heating aliment, (excess of corn meal, linseed cake, 
rape cake, cotton cake,) from wild mustard and other ir- 
ritants, from poor, hard, fibrous food, from suspension of 
rumination during prolonged hard work, and from min- 
eral and vegetable irritants. 

Symptoms. In mild cases, from heating or poor food, 
there are dullness, moaning, trembling, straining and fre- 
quent passage of dung in small quantities, hot, clammy, 
slightly reddened mouth, dry muzzle, sharp accelerated 
pulse, fullness and tenderness of the belly, and the pres- 
ence of solid masses of food in the paunch as felt on the 
left side when pressed with the fist. 

The more active forms, resulting from green food or ir- 
ritants, are manifested by the same symptoms as acute 
impaction of the third stomach, with the addition of a 
tense abdomen, not dependent on the paunch, increasing 
tenderness, and increased temperature of the body. There 
may be diarrhoea or costiveness or one after the other, 
and it may end in stupor or convulsions. • 

Treatment. In the milder forms give a quart of linseed 
or olive-oil and 2 drs. Dover's powder. Even Epsom or 
Glauber salts may be used with drachm doses of hyoscy- 
amus or belladonna as often as may be requisite to keep 
down violent suffering. Give all the water the patient will 
drink, adding a little decoction of linseed, slippery elm or 
mallow ; also frequent injections of warm water, and warm 
fomentations to the abdomen followed by a blister. Brain 
symptoms must be treated as advised under impaction of 
the third stomach. Follow up with a course of tonics 
after relief is obtained. 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 239 



INDIGESTION IN WORKING OXEN FROM DRINKING COLD WATER 

This occurs in hard-working oxen, coming from a dust} 
road in a hot day and drinking to excess. There are vio- 
lent colicky pains, uneasy shifting of the hind limbs, lying 
down and rising, looking at the flanks, and a fullness and 
gurgling on the right side of the abdomen. It may pass 
in half an hour to an hour with a free watery diarrhoea. 
Treatment consists in exercise, walking or trotting, and a 
stimulating draught — pepper, ginger, fennel, caraway, 
peppermint, ammonia, alcohol and the like. 

INDIGESTION IN CALVES, LAMBS AND FOALS. WHITE SCOUR. 

This may result from a great variety of causes, such as 
withholding the first (laxative) milk after parturition, 
feeding new-born calves on the milk of old calved cows, 
bringing up foals or lambs on cow's milk, working, over- 
driving or otherwise exciting the dams, feeding unwhole- 
some food to the dams, allowing too long intervals be- 
tween the meals of the young, bringing up on hand on 
cold or soured milk or farinaceous food, keeping in damp 
unwholesome pens, or the accumulation of pellets of hair 
in the stomach. 

Symptoms. Irregular (impaired or even ravenous) ap- 
petite, swollen, tender, drum-like abdomen, sour eructa- 
tions, profuse foetid white watery diarrhoea, white or gray- 
ish fur on the tongue, dry, scurfy, unthrifty skin, and rapid 
emaciation. 

Treatment. Give a dose of 1 to 2 ozs. castor-oil (^ for 
lambs) with a teaspoonful of laudanum. Then with each 
meal give a tablespoonful from a bottle of sherry in which 
^ of the fresh fourth stomach of a calf has been steeped. 
Or with this give a carminative (1 oz. tincture of cinna- 
mon) with an antacid (prepared chalk or magnesia 1 dr.) 
and soothing or anodyne agents (gum Arabic, bismuth,) 
with, it may be, an astringent (tincture of kino or catechu 
1 dr.) If there is much tenderness of the abdomen ap- 
ply a pulp of mustard and water. If yellowness of the 



24.0 The Farmers Veterinary Adviser. 

mucous membranes and white, very foetid dung, give 2 
grs. calomel and 5 grs. chalk twice daily. In all cases 
give fresh, warm, wholesome milk thrice a day, with sev- 
eral spoonfuls of lime-water added to each meal. In 
some instances the tone of the stomach may be greatly 
restored by a tablespoonful of tincture of gentian twice a 
day. 

Prevention should be sought in breeding only vigorous 
families, sheltering properly, and feeding the milk of the 
dam or of a healthy nurse unaltered by faulty feeding or 
excitement, or by standing. "When a foal must be brought 
up on cow's milk, dilute with one-third its bulk of warm 
water, sweeten with sugar and add lime-water. For the 
carnivora use only the upper third of cow's milk. 

ACUTE GASTBIC INDIGESTION IN THE HOESE. TYMPANY. 

This results from sudden tilling of the stomach to excess, 
from suspended digestion in connection with hard work 
immediately after a meal, from the washing on of un- 
digested food, from a full drink after a feed of grain, from 
certain indigestible and easily fermented aliments, such as 
cause tympany in the ox, from irritant plants, and from 
hurried swallowing of hot cooked food. 

Symptoms. These appear just after feeding and are at 
first those of simple colic, (see Spasmodic Colic) soon 
followed by fullness and tension of the belly, a drum-like 
sound when it is percussed, quickened, deep, oppressed 
breathing, dullness and increasing stupor. The pain is 
continuous though of varying intensity, there is no dispo- 
sition to eat or drink, draughts administered tend to 
aggravate the symptoms, the sufferer yawns, places his 
fore feet apart, arches the neck drawing in the nose toward 
the breast, and in exceptional cases, may obtain relief by 
belching gas, or even by vomiting, the food escaping 
mainly through the nose. More commonly the occurrence 
of vomiting implies rupture of the stomach and presages 
death. The pulse then becomes rapid, weak and soon 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 241 

imperceptible, and the countenance very haggard and de- 
jected. In the advanced stages the animal is usually sunk 
in stupor, and rests his head on the manger or pushes it 
against the wall, while in some instances nervous move- 
ments of the lips and limbs occur. ■ 

Treatment. Give early, full doses of aromatics, stimu- 
lants and tonics, (tincture of pimento or gmger, oil of 
peppermint, aqua ammonia, ether, alcohol, chloral, peppers, 
nux vomica, etc.,) rub the belly, and if relieved, follow up 
with a dose of physic. Alkalies are sometimes useful, as 
in the ox. Warm water injections and walking exercise 
should also be given. The stomach of the horse cannot 
be safely punctured, hence the affection is too often fatal. 
When relieved give easily digested food frequently in small 
quantity, until the stomach has regained its tone. When 
horses bolt their food give a little hay to appease hunger 
before allowing grain. 

ACUTE INTESTINAL INDIGESTION EST THE HORSE. 
TYMPANITIC COLIC. 

Due to the same causes as gastric tympany, this often 
complicates that, and is complicated by it, the disease 
being named according to the predominance of the 
gaseous evolution in stomach or bowels. When the 
bowels are mainly implicated, there is greater hope, as 
medicines may be passed through the stomach and taken 
up from the gut so as to affect the system, and the gas 
may even be drawn off with a small cannula and trocar 
from the large intestines which occupy the lower part of 
the abdomen. The puncture should be made where the 
resonance is clearest and most drum-like. The symptoms 
closely resemble those of tympanitic stomach, only there 
is more passage of dung and flatus, and the treatment only 
differs in the greater freedom with which liquids may be 
poured into the stomach and the possibility of drawing of) 
the gas through a cannula. 
16 



242 The Farmer's Veterinary' Adviser. 

IMPACTION OF THE LARGE INTESTINES EST HORSES. 

This results from overfeeding, especially on grain, 
(Indian corn, wheat,) from hard, fibrous, indigestible food 
taken in excess to make up for the deficiency of quality ; 
from imperfect preparation of the food in diseases of the 
teeth, jaws or salivary glands ; from insufficiency of water, 
and eminently from want of exercise. 

Symptoms. Considerable impaction may last for a time 
without any sign, and the disease finally shows itself sud- 
denly as a violent colic. More commonly transient colics 
come on after meals for several days in succession. There 
are pawing with the fore feet, uneasy movements, or kicking 
of the belly with the hind, lying down and rising at short 
intervals, turning of the nose toward the flank, and the 
frequent passage of wind and of dung, the latter a few 
small pellets at a time. There is special fullness and 
tension of the right side of the belly, dullness on per- 
cussion, solid resistance when pressed, and if the soaped 
hand is introduced through the last gut the solidly im- 
pacted bowels are usually to be felt. The pressure of 
these on the bladder often causes frequent discharges of 
urine. A favorite position is one with the fore limbs 
stretched forward and the hind backward. 

Treatment. In mild cases and in the early stages give a 
laxative diet (roots, soft bran mashes, oil meal, cornstalks,) 
and two or three ounces of Glauber salts daily in the food. 
In the more severe, give aloes, physostigma, gentian and 
mix vomica, and in case of tympany, carbonate of ammonia 
or peppermint ; relieve pain by hyoscyamus or belladonna, 
and follow up with frequent injections of warm water, and 
frictions and fomentations of the abdomen. The aloes 
should not be repeated under twenty-four hours, but if 
there is evidence of their having passed off by the kidneys 
they may be replaced by linseed or olive-oil. The action 
of the bowels may be deferred three or four days without 
a fatal result whereas too much medicine will often cause 
rupture of the gut in front of the impaction. 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 243 

Prevention should be sought by a more laxative diet, by 
a liberal supply of water, by exercise, or even by daily 
doses of 1 or 2 oz. of sulphate of soda in the food. The 
addition of 2 drachms of powdered gentian and 10 grs. of 
nux vomica will often restore lost tone to the bowels. 

CATARRH OF THE STOMACH AND BOWELS IN HORSES. 

This is a form of chronic indigestion resulting from 
faults in diet, as regards quality, quantity and regularity 
from a habit of bolting food ; from starvation and hard 
work ; from a sudden access of rich food ; from the irrita- 
tion of worms ; from congested or torpid liver ; from 
impaction of the bowels or from any irritant in the food. 

Symptoms. Unthrifty appearance, rough coat, hide- 
bound, irregular or capricious appetite, dullness at work, 
emaciation, tucked up belly, clammy, furred tongue, irreg- 
ularity of the bowels, diarrhoea alternating with constipa- 
tion, hard balls of imperfectly digested dung covered with 
a film of mucus, foetid sour odor of stools, and an inclina- 
tion to lick the white walls or fresh earth. 

Treatment. A carefully regulated and easily digested 
diet, (green food, sound hay, ground oats, roots,) moderate 
regular exercise, a clean, warm, comfortable stable, rock 
salt to lick at will, and a course of tonics, (gentian with nux 
vomica, white bismuth, and sulphate of soda,) morning and 
evening. Change from one tonic to another as they seem 
to lose their effect. Slippery elm, boiled linseed, mallow, 
etc., are often useful in checking irritation. 

VOMITING. 

This is common in carnivora and pigs but exceedingly 
rare in cattle, and still more so in horses, asses and 
mules. It may be due to a great variety of causes, as di- 
rect irritation of the stomach by food, poison, congestion or 
inflammation, disease of the brain, or of some other organ, 
which profoundly affects the system, or which like the 
throat or gullet has intimate nervous relations with the 



244 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



stomach. It is therefore mostly a symptom of other dis- 
eases, and in many cases of gastric irritation is a means 
of relief. "When due to direct irritation of the stomach 
favor it by giving tepid water freely. When emptied, the 
stomach may be soothed by ice, iced water, prussic acid, 
creosote, carbolic acid, bismuth, mix vomica, lemon-juice, 
camphor, etc. Gum and albumen may often be given to 
sheath the irritated organ, and a blister may be placed 
on the pit of the stomach. 

DEPRAVED APPETITE. 

Seen in dyspeptic horses, eating earth, lime, etc., in rabid 
dogs swallowing all sorts of things, and in cows eating 
chalk, earth, sand, gravel, wood, leather, iron bolts, and 
articles of clothing, hair, bones, lead, etc. In many cases 
what is begun as a habit is continued as a disease, the 
foreign bodies in the stomach deranging the digestion and 
keeping up a morbid craving. Pregnancy, tuberculosis, 
and a deficiency of phosphates in the soil and food are 
occasional causes in cows. The habit should be checked 
by keeping tempting objects out of reach, dealing with 
tuberculosis and chronic gastric catarrh as advised under 
those heads, with a deficiency of phosphates, by an 
abundant artificial feeding on sound grains and a course 
of tonics, and with indigestible bodies in the stomach, by 
a careful feeding to prepare the beast for slaughter, or that 
failing by opening the paunch on the left side and remov- 
ing the offending agent (see impacted paunch). m 

FOREIGN BODIES IN STOMACH AND INTESTPNES. 

These may be taken in by accident with the food or 
may be deposited from it in the form of calculi or con- 
cretions. 

Cattle suffer much from sharp-pointed bodies like nee- 
dles, pins, nails, etc., taken with the food, and afterward 
making their way to the heart which they penetrate, causing 
sudden death, or in more favorable cases making their way 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 245 



through the walls of the abdomen and escaping. Blunt 
objects remain in the paunch and honeycomb-bag, causing 
much or little irritation according to size or number. The 
most varied objects are often found in cattle slaugh- 
tered for beef and in good health, nails, coin, shot, solder, 
buttons, and hair-balls, are among the most common. I 
have known fifteen hair-balls from three to six inches in 
diameter in the paunch of a healthy fat heifer. In sucking 
calves, in which they form in the true stomach, they cause 
dyspepsia, diarrhoea, and emaciation. 

Sheep suffer from wool-balls, from the fine hairs of clover 
and other aliments, and from collections of sand and gravel 
when fed turnips from damp soil. 

Swine have balls of bristles in the stomach and large 
intestines. 

Morses have concretions of phosphate of lime, with 
smooth stony surface ; of ammonia-magnesian phosphate 
with rough crystalline structure ; of the fine hairs from 
the surface of the oat with a fine velvety surface ; and of 
two or more of those mixed in one calculus. These are 
formed equally in the stomach and large intestines. 

Dogs have hair-balls mainly in the large intestines, as 
well as marbles and other objects picked up in play. 

These foreign bodies may exist without any manifest 
result, or they may cause tympany in cattle and sheep 
after every meal, vomiting in dogs and pigs, acute indiges- 
tion in the horse, and in all animals in which they are 
lodged in the intestines, obstruction of their passage, and 
violent colics which recur frequently, and usually cut the 
animal off sooner or later. 

In ruminants the offending bodies may be removed from 
the stomach by a surgical operation, but in others little 
can be done beyond giving anodynes (opium, belladonna, 
stramonium, etc.,) to relieve pain and spasm and await 
the result. A dose of physic would carry off the smaller 
calculi but would be dangerous in the large. But these 
cases can rarely be recognized until after death, and are 



246 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

necessarily classed with a number of others, (invagination, 
constriction, etc., of the bowels,) in which there is irreme- 
diable obstruction, and which end sooner or later in death. 

SPASMODIC COLIC. BELLY-ACHE. 

This term is loosely used to designate all conditions in 
which there is pain in the belly, whether from disease of 
liver, pancreas, urinary organs, generative apparatus, 
stomach or bowels, and whether caused by nervous irrita- 
tion, inflammation, improper position, strangulation or 
compression by adjacent organs, obstruction by foreign 
bodies, etc., etc. The present remarks will be confined to 
that which is more purely nervous and which results from 
spasmodic contraction (cramps) of the bowels. 

In certain susceptible states of the system a slight indi- 
gestion, without impaction or tympany, the taking of indi- 
gestible matters that would have been harmless at another 
time, a drink of ice-cold water when perspiring and exhaus- 
ted, a chill rain or dew will cause spasms and the most 
excruciating agony. 

Symptoms. The attack is sudden, the horse paws, 
moves uneasily, kicks at the belly, looks at the flanks with 
anxious countenance, dilated nostrils and glaring eye, 
crouches with semi-bent limbs for a few seconds and then 
throws himself down with a prolonged groan. He rolls, 
lies on his back, sits on his haunches and may get up, 
shake himself, take to feeding and appear quite well. 
Another fit comes on in ten, fifteen, twenty or thirty min- 
utes, and after each there is a period of freedom from pain, 
with natural pulse and breathing. This with the reckless 
manner in which he lies down, and the entire absence of 
tenderness of the abdomen, or of elevated temperature, 
serve to distinguish from other bowel diseases, especially 
inflammation. Each succeeding attack may be less severe 
until they cease, or they may increase in severity and the 
disease merge into acute tympanitic indigestion or enteritis. 

In cattle there are similar symptoms with uneasy shift- 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs 247 

ing of the hind limbs, kicking with the upper one when 
down, twisting of the tail and moaning. It rarely lasts 
over an hour or two. 

Dogs curl themselves up to rest, but move uneasily or 
moan, and with the more violent pains start up with a 
sudden yelp, move around for some time and lie down 
until the next spasm comes on. The eye is bright, the 
nose cool and moist, the pulse natural, and the appetite 
retained. 

Treatment. In all animals alike, a laxative (aloes, horse ; 
linseed-oil, cattle and sheep ; castor-oil, pigs and dogs,) is 
the safest treatment as it soon relieves the spasm and 
carries off any irritant that may have contributed to main- 
tain it. It is usually desirable to add an anodyne (bella- 
donna, hyoscyamus, opium, aconite, chloral-hydrate,) 
to relieve the pain until the laxative is absorbed, and a 
stimulant anti-spasmodic (carbonate of ammonia, sweet 
spirits of nitre, ether,) to quiet the nervous excitement. 
Copious injections of warm water with or without anodynes 
and anti-spasmodics are not to be neglected, neither is 
quiet walking exercise. If the affection appears purely 
spasmodic the laxative may be withheld until two doses 
of anodynes and anti-spasmodics have been given at in- 
tervals of half an hour, but should these fail, give the 
opening medicine at once, and then only enough of the 
other agents to moderate excessive pain until it has had 
time to be absorbed. Complete relief may be looked for in 
three or four hours. 

ACUTE HEMOBRHAGIC ENTERITIS. 

This is very common in hard-working horses in some 
localities and is also seen in cattle, sheep, swine and dogs. 
It may follow unrelieved obstruction of the bowels, espe- 
cially if these have been treated by powerful opiates and 
stimulants or dangerously irritant purgatives. To these 
must be added excessive fatigue, heavy, hurried feeding, 
and drinking iced water, exposure to a cold draught, chil) 



248 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



rain, 01 cold sponge when exhausted, a sadden change to 
dry grain feeding, to new oats or hay, to rank, rapidly- 
grown clover or grasses, or to musty food. 

Symptoms. When not supervening on indigestion or ob- 
struction of the bowels its onset is sudden. The patient 
stamps, paws, looks at his flank, moves from place to place, 
walks crouchingly, lies down, rolls, acts in short as in spas- 
modic colic, but there is a more careful lying down, there is 
no intermission to the pain, the face continues pinched and 
anxious even if the beast stands quiet for a few seconds, 
the eye remains fixed and glazed, the pupils dilated, the 
breathing hurried and catching, the pulse rapid, and be- 
coming smaller and weaker, the temperature unnaturally 
high, the surface covered with sweat and often cold, and 
the limbs and ears deathly cold. The abdomen is usually 
tender. As the disease advances the animal may become 
still but all the other signs are worse. Others become 
reckless and dash about peeling and injuring themselves 
and imperiling those about them. The bowels are confined 
and in the advanced stages the pellets passed may be 
stained with blood. Death may ensue in from three to 
twenty-four hours after the onset. 

Treatment. If seen at the outset give a mild laxative 
(olive-oil) with an anodyne (hyoscyamus). Bleeding from 
the jugular vein may give prompt relief if the pulse is still 
full and strong. But neither of these can be ventured upon 
except at the very outset, and therefore in the great major- 
ity of cases are to be avoided. Apply hot fomentations to 
the belly by a blanket wrung out of water nearly boiling, 
rub the limbs with ammonia, mustard or turpentine, and 
give injections of warm water containing anodynes (bella- 
donna, hyoscyamus, opium, aconite, tobacco, etc.). 

If the soft, weak, rapid pulse bespeaks already existing 
effusion, avoid bleeding and laxatives, give one or two 
drachms of opium by mouth, or better one or two grains 
sulphate of morphia injected under the skin, repeating as 
often as may be requisite to moderate suffering and keep 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 249 

the bowels inactive, accompanying this by hot fomentations 
and counter-irritants. 

In case of improvement feed linseed or oatmeal gruels, 
boiled linseed, or very sloppy bran mashes only, and in 
small amount, for several days. If the bowels continue 
confined give four or five ozs. olive-oil, or three or four ozs. 
Glauber salts once or twice a day. 

'But prevention is especially to be sought in such a rapidly 
fatal disease. Regularity and sufficient frequency of feeding, 
in moderate quantities at a time and of good quality, and a 
gradual instead of a sudden change of diet, are important. 
When new hay or grain, or heating agents like maize or 
wheat are fed, one feed daily should be replaced by a sloppy 
bran mash, or one or two ounces of common or Glauber salts 
added. Avoid full draughts of cold or iced water when 
sweating and exhausted, and of any water after a meal of 
grain. 

ACUTE MXTCO-ENTERITIS. 

All the domestic animals are subject to this form of in- 
flammation, chiefly of the mucous membrane of the bowels. 
The causes are mainly the same as those of hemorrhagic 
enteritis acting on a less susceptible subject, or with lessened 
force. These may be named exposure, sudden extreme 
changes of weather, coarse, dry, fibrous, musty or otherwise 
irritant indigestible food, abrupt changes of diet, impure, 
stagnant or putrid water, too much water after feeding, or 
iced water when fatigued and perspiring, drastic or oft- 
repeated purgatives, suppressed perspiration, sand in the 
food, parasites and the various mechanical obstructions (cal- 
culi, impactions, invaginations, hernia). Cattle, sheep and 
swine especially suffer during the vicissitudes and extremes 
of spring, summer and autumn, and the latter from want 
of water to drink and wallow in. Ewes in lamb in New 
York perish in great numbers when fed grain. Best con- 
fine to clover hay. Succulent roots or fruits may be 
given judiciously. Among dogs the young suffer most and 
those kept on animal food, or that bathe in rivers when 



250 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

heated with the chase. Chickens contract it from faults 
in feeding and watering, but especially from exclusive 
feeding on grain and deficiency or impurity of the water. 

Symptoms. In the mildest forms are fever, increased 
temperature, thirst, scanty, high-colored urine, costive 
bowels, the small masses of dung covered with a film ot 
mucus, tender belly, small, quick, hard pulse, yellowish- 
red eyes, hot clammy mouth, furred tongue with redness 
along the edges, tip and lower surface, impaired appetite, 
dull sluggish habit, loss of flesh, unthrifty skin, and slight 
colics after meals. 

In the more severe forms all these symptoms are in- 
creased in severity, appetite gone, dullness and depres- 
sion extreme, head carried low, gait unsteady, breathing 
excited, a ridge on the tender abdomen as in pleurisy, 
and more frequent colic, with pawing, uneasy shifting of 
the limbs, kicking at the abdomen, looking at the flanks 
and lying down and rising. Diarrhoea may set in and 
herald recovery, or it may become profuse, bloody and 
fatal. 

In addition to these general symptoms cattle and sheep 
have impairment or loss of rumination, frequent belch- 
ing of gas, foetid breath and tenderness mainly of the 
right side of the abdomen. When due to acrid and irri- 
tant plants, the back is arched, abdomen tense and tucked 
up, constipation obstinate, tongue often purple, and the 
urine high-colored or even bloody. It may prove fatal 
after a fortnight's sickness. In swine the affection is usu- 
ally mistaken for Intestinal Fever which indeed it strongly 
resembles, but without the ineffaceable black spots on the 
skin and mucous membranes, and without a contagious 
principle. In dogs much dullness, drowsiness, restless- 
ness, with tucked up, tense, very tender abdomen, violent 
constipation and very painful and difficult passage of 
dung are added to the general symptoms. Vomiting is 
common in dogs and pigs. Chickens lose appetite and 
vivacity, droop the head, raise the feathers, move slug- 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 251 

gishly, scour, strain violently, and show much tenderness 
of the abdomen when handled. 

Treatment. At the outset give a laxative (horse, aloes 
ox or sheep, Glauber salts ; or for all animals olive-oil ; ) 
with anodynes (belladonna, hyoscyamus, Indian hemp,) 
in a mucilage of slippery elm or gum Arabic, and repeat 
these mucilages and anodynes as may be needful to quiet 
the suffering. Mild cases may be successfully treated by 
small daily doses of sulphate of soda with abundance of 
mucilage, and tonic doses of gentian and nux vomica. 
Give injections of hot water, with anodynes, and apply fo- 
mentations, or in small animals poultices, followed by 
mustard or other counter-irritants to the belly as in hem- 
orrhagic enteritis. When profuse diarrhoea sets in give 
freely of mucilaginous and starchy drinks, with quinia, 
gentian, nux vomica or other bitter and opium. The diet 
must be restricted to well-boiled mucilaginous gruels, and 
in the case of herbivora, sloppy warm bran mashes. 

The treatment of diseased chickens is not always satis- 
factory, but the whole flock should have mush, vegetables 
and boiled potatoes, with clear pure drinking water to 
which may be added cream of tartar or Glauber salts, 1 
oz. to every quart. 

CROUPOUS ENTERITIS. 

This occurs in cattle, horses, sheep and dogs, and may 
be considered as a modification of the other forms of en- 
teritis and produced by similar causes. The symptoms 
may approach those of either of the two forms of the dis- 
ease already described, the suffering being extreme and 
lasting, or violent but short, and followed by dullness, de- 
pression, fever, and tenderness of the belly. If the ani- 
mal survives long enough the false membranes are passed 
in great, white, friable masses or shreds. In its earliest 
stages a laxative will often alter the condition of the mem- 
brane and contribute to a prompt recovery. Later treat 
as in enteritis. Saline laxatives (sulphate of soda or mag- 



252 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

nesia) and bitters (nux vomica, gentian, quassia, quinia,) 
are especially indicated when the membranes are separat- 
ing. If resulting from mercurial poisoning, give chlorate 
of potassa and iodide of potassium. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE RECTUM. 

The last or straight gut often suffers exclusively in horses 
and dogs in connection with the impaction of hardened 
dung, or calculi, and in oxen with a certain conformation 
from the introduction of air. Dung is passed in long cyl- 
indroid masses with great straining and pain, or cannot 
be passed at all. In the dog it is covered with mucus, 
pus or even blood. The everted gut is of a deep red color, 
thickened, infiltrated and hot. Rupture may ensue if it is 
not relieved. Treat by emptying the gut with the oiled hand 
or finger, give a spare laxative diet (bran mashes, roots, 
gruels,) frequent injections of warm water containing some 
mucilage and olive-oil, and an occasional purgative (olive 
or linseed-oil). 

In high-rumped oxen, cut the muscles on the upper 
surface of the tail and tie it down until healed. 

DIARRHOEA. SCOURING. 

This is a frequent discharge of semi-liquid or liquid 
dung from the bowels without griping or violent straining. 
It is a symptom of disease rather than an independent 
malady, as it may arise from almost any irritant in the 
bowels. Among its common causes may be named a full 
drink followed by active exertion ; feeding soft, aqueous, 
rapidly-grown green food ; cooked food for hard-working 
horses ; many irritant and acrid plants ; spoiled potatoes, 
turnips, apples, etc. ; stagnant, putrid water ; undigested 
matters in the bowels from imperfect mastication or di- 
gestion; impaction of some part cf the bowels; worms, 
etc. It may occur from irritants secreted from the blood, 
as in the case of jurgative agents accidentally taken in 
with food or water, and the morbid elements of certain 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 253 



fevers (Binderpest, Texan-fever, hog-cholera, lung-fever.) 
Lastly, a reflex irritation from the skin as in exposure to 
chilling rains, night-dews, or damp stalls, or to hot damp 
buildings, seasons or localities. Horses are especially 
liable to superpurgation if worked or supplied with ice-cold 
water during the operation of a dose of physic. 

Symptoms. These may be slight as in the frequent 
pulpy evacuations of animals fed exclusively on roots, or 
severe, as in the excessive and almost constant discharge 
of a dark-colored liquid mixed with mucus. Slight diar- 
rhoea does not affect the appetite, nor interfere with 
improvement in condition, but in the severer forms there 
is loud rumbling in the abdomen, loss of appetite and 
condition, rapid, small, weak pulse, hurried breathing, 
pallid mucous membranes and weakness even to unsteady 
gait. Distension of the belly, with pawing and other signs 
of abdominal pain may appear in bad cases. In horses it 
is often followed by inflammation of the feet. 

Treatment. Unload the bowels by linseed, olive, or 
castor-oil according to the patient, adding laudanum, and 
follow up by mucilaginous (linseed, gum Arabic, slip- 
pery elm,) or starchy draughts or even injections with or 
without laudanum as may seem required. In prolonged 
and obstinate cases astringents (kino, catechu, oak bark, 
tannic acid, nitrate of silver,) with tonics (gentian, cin- 
chona, salicine, nux vomica,) and carminatives (campho- 
rated spirit, ginger, peppers, caraway, fennel, etc.,) may 
have to be employed. But in no case should astringents 
or opiates be used until the irritant has been carried off 
by a laxative, and usually a change of diet is needful to 
prevent a second attack. In acute or obstinate cases 
dry rubbing or a blister to the belly may be useful, and 
perfect rest must be enjoined. 

DYSENTEKY. BLOODY-FLUX. 

This is a morbid process approaching inflammation ot 
the mucous membranes of the large intestines, and leading 



254 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

to the formation of ulcers. It occurs in cattle, horses, 
swine and dogs, may be enzootic on certain rich impervi- 
ous soils, or even epizootic. 

Causes. Those of diarrhoea acting with greater energy ; 
the emanations from marshy inundated soils, or from 
carcasses ; putrid, stagnant or iced water ; musty, putrid 
or otherwise altered food ; overexertion in excessive heats ; 
or even a contagium. 

Symptoms. The acute form comes on suddenly with 
symptoms of acute intestinal catarrh. The dung is passed fre- 
quently with straining and is semi-liquid and foetid. Later 
it is quite liquid with mucus, blood and shreds of false mem- 
branes or sloughs, intolerably offensive, and passed with 
still more pain and straining. Later still, the same painful 
straining fails to bring away anything, though the red, 
infiltrated and excoriated rectum may protrude. At length 
the discharge again reappears more repulsive than ever 
and passes involuntarily. Appetite is gradually lost, but 
thirst increases. Fever exists at first with staring coat 
and even shivering, hot fevered mouth and accelerated 
pulse, but this is less marked as the disease becomes 
chronic. Then there is extreme emaciation, cold limbs, 
dry, cracked muzzle, hide-bound, scurfy, unhealthy, lousy 
skin, often covered with flies, deeply-sunken pallid eye», 
and involuntary liquid putrid discharges. Death may 
occur in three or four days or the disease may be pro- 
tracted for months. 

Treatment. Rub the belly actively and apply mustard, 
or in small animals give a warm bath. Give a mild laxa- 
tive (olive-oil, Glauber salts,) with calmative (Dover's 
pywder, laudanum). After the laxative has operated give 
daily Dover's powder with ipecacuanha, or sal ammoniac, 
or should these fail to improve the discharge, astringents 
|kino, catechu, gall-nuts, oak bark, black currant bark, 
walnut leaves, tormentilla, rhatany, etc.,) with tonics (quinia, 
nux vomica, salicine, cascarilla, carbonate or sulphate of 
iron, sulphate of copper, nitrate of silver). Small doses 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 255 

of oil of turpentine, copaiva, creosote or carbolic acid 
often act beneficially on the diseased mucous membrane. 
The same agents may be given as injections in mueilagi- 
nous fluids. Diet must be bland, easily digested, and fed 
little at a time. Mashes of wheat bran, or flour from tho 
whole grain of wheat, barley or oats, and fresh pulped or 
cooked roots may be given to the herbivora ; and farinas 
made into puddings, with just enough juice of meat to in- 
sure their being eaten, to the carnivora. Fresh raw meat 
without fat, beaten to a pulp in a mortar will often agree 
when nothing else will. The drink should be mixed with 
a little boiled linseed, gum, slippery elm or barley water. 

OBSTRUCTION OF THE BOWELS. 

Under this head may be considered all cases of com- 
plete obstruction of the bowels excepting those of the na- 
ture of hernia or rupture. It will include blocking of the 
gut by hardened dung, calculi, and foreign bodies swal- 
lowed ; invagination or the slipping of a portion of gut 
into what is adjacent, like the drawing of a finger of a 
glove into itself ; volvulus, or the rolling on itself of a por- 
tion of intestine with its connecting membrane until noth- 
ing can pass through it ; strangulation of an intestine by 
another rolled round it, by a tumor hanging by a long 
pedicle, or by a band of false membrane formed in some 
pre-existing inflammation and gradually contracting ; tu- 
mors formed within a gut ; and in steers the strangulation 
of a loop of intestine in a pouch in the right flank formed 
by contraction on the spermatic cord in castration. 

The symptoms of complete obstruction are those of se- 
vere spasmodic colic, but without the intervals of complete 
freedom from pain. It differs also from enteritis in that 
there is no rise of temperature at first. The dung may 
be abundant at the outset but as the disease advances is 
more or less completely suppressed, the portion of intes- 
tine behind the obstruction having been emptied. The 
horse often seems to obtain a partial temporary relief by 



256 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

sitting on his haunches or lying on his back, and will retch, 
though vomiting is rare, unless the stomach is ruptured. If 
the obstruction is in the pelvic flexure of the large bowels 
it may be felt by the hand introduced through the rectum. 

In ruminants the preliminary colics may be followed by 
quietude, but there remain extreme lassitude, depression, 
sunken eye and dry hot muzzle, and even stupor or coma. 
In cattle the hand introduced into the rectum will detect the 
mass of the overdistended bowel above the obstruction. It 
may also ascertain the existence of a pouch imprisoning the 
gut in the right flank and may even pull it out and relieve. 

In dogs violent colic may be absent, but there is much de- 
pression, inappetence, vomiting of bile or fseces, arching of 
the back, tucking up of the belly, the passage with much 
pain and straining of mucus-covered fseces, and later, strain- 
ing without any passage, while the overloaded gut may 
easily be felt through the walls of the belly. 

Treatment. In most cases of absolute obstruction nothing 
can be done except to relieve the pain by anodynes (opium, 
belladonna, stramonium, Indian hemp, etc.,) and give nutrient 
injections. The obstruction may often be kneaded through 
the rectum. Liquid above the obstruction may be drawn off 
through a fine tube. Invagination, volvulus or gut-tie, when 
their presence is ascertained in ruminants, pigs or dogs, 
would warrant an incision through the walls of the abdomen 
and an attempt to rectify with the hand. In cattle the 
opening must always be made in the right flank, the left 
being occupied by the paunch. The wound must be after- 
ward carefully sewed up and the animal prevented from 
rubbing it. Gut-tie may often be remedied by manipula- 
tion with the hand in the rectum, or even by the simpler 
expedient of jumping from a bank about two feet high, 
though if due to adhesion of the cord to an intestine the 
abdomen must be opened and the band cut. 

HERNIA. RUPTURE. BURST. 

Hernia is understood to mean the displacement of some 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 257 



internal organ through a natural or unnatural opening. 
Of abdominal organs the bowels and omentum are those 
that most commonly protrude, though the womb often es- 
capes in bitches. According to the structure through 
which the organ passes the hernia is named : — into the 
chest, diaphragmatic or -phrenic ; through the omentum or 
mesentery, omental, mesenteric; through the navel, umbilical; 
into the scrotum, inguinal or scrotal; through the femoral 
arch to the inner side of the thigh, femoral; through an 
artificial opening in the walls of the abdomen, ventral, 
through the relaxed walls of the vagina, vaginal. 

Diaphragmatic Hernia may occur from violent muscular 
efforts, from the violent shock of a heavy abdominal organ 
on the midriff in leaping or from laceration with a broken 
rib or other offending body. The worst cases are sud- 
denly fatal from suffocation. In others there is a sudden 
access of difficult breathing with gurgling sounds on aus- 
cultating the chest. In still others, with a smaller rupture, 
the rumbling in the chest may be absent but there is vio- 
lent, continuous colic and rapid prostration as in obstruc- 
tion. In the slightest forms there is only an extra lifting 
of the flanks as in heaves. Treatment is useless, though 
rest and anodynes will allow a slight case to merge into 
the chronic form. 

Mesenteric and Omental Hernia give rise to complete ob- 
struction of the bowels and can rarely be recognized nor 
remedied. 

Umbilical Hernia is common in horses, dogs and very 
young ruminants. It is usually congenital but may result 
from violent straining, running or jumping. The swelling 
is very manifest and when handled its contents are found 
to move on each other, to gurgle and to pass back in a 
mass when pressed. 

Treatment is often needless, the sac becoming effaced 

with growth. If not, make a soft pad for the navel and 

attach it to elastic bands passing round the body and fixed 

in their turn to otters extending back from a collar round 

17 



258 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

the neck. Or in slight cases blister the sac severely and 
repeatedly ; or apply wooden clamps over the skin close up 
to the belly, having first perfectly returned the protrusion, 
and let them be worn until they drop off. 

Inguinal Hernia occurs in the male quadruped of any age, 
as the sac containing the testicle remains continuous with the 
abdomen throughout life. It is rare but by no means un- 
known in the castrated animal. It may exist without any 
other sy?nptom than an unnatural swelling of the scrotum, the 
contents movable on themselves, the thickening extending up 
to the abdomen, and the whole disappearing suddenly and in 
a mass when pressed. Or these signs may be associated with 
the violent and continuous colicky pains of obstruction. In 
all cases of colic in entire males the possibility of hernia 
should be borne in mind and an examination made. 

Treatment is very varied, in difficult cases requiring ana- 
tomical knowlege and attention to many minutiae which can- 
not be given here. Yet in many cases the hernia may be re- 
turned by simple pressure with the hand, with or without the 
other hand inserted into the last gut and carried down to the 
internal inguinal ring. If the patient is thrown on his back 
with his hind parts well raised the return will be greatly 
facilitated. In pigs and dogs castration should be resorted to, 
the gut being first returned and held back by pressing upon the 
canal in front of the testicle, and finally the wound in the skin 
sewed up. Or the testicle covered by its sac may be stripped 
to pass the bowel back into the abdomen and then tied tightly 
with a carbolated cord. For particulars of treatment of the 
various forms of inguinal hernia see the author's larger work. 

Femoral Hernia in bitches rarely demands or receives 
treatment. 

Ventral Hernia is easily distinguished from other swell- 
ings of the abdominal walls by the movable gurgling con- 
tents entirely returnable into the abdomen by pressure. 
Though often masked by surrounding inflammation these 
characters can usually be recognized. Treatment is most 
successful just after the injury is sustained, as after the 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 259 

margins of the wound have become insensible they will 
not contract and heal. Return the protrusion, throwing 
the animal on its back and quieting with opium, ether or 
chloral if necessary. Then cover the opening with pads 
and cover with a strong sheet wound round the abdomen 
and laced tightly along the back. Keep the sheet in posi- 
tion by bands carried from its anterior border to a collar 
round the neck. Adjust and pad it carefully day by day 
until all swelling and tenderness subside. 

Vaginal Hernia must be treated like eversion of the va- 
gina. 

EVEESION OF THE KECTUM. 

The rectum protrudes naturally in passing dung but re- 
turns immediately. If it remains and swells it demands 
interference. Poorly-kept animals (dogs, pigs,) are liable 
and it may be caused in all from violent straining in work, 
parturition, constipation, diarrhoea or dysentery. The 
protrusion may be confined to a mucous fold at one side 
of the anus or the entire gut may protrude to the length 
of several feet. If recent it is little altered, but if old, is 
red, thick, softened or even ulcerated. The protrusion 
must be emptied, cleaned and returned, the oiled finger or 
arm (according to size) being introduced into the gut and 
through the constriction of the anus and the other hand 
used to strip it off from this. The head of the patient 
should be turned downhill and straining prevented by 
pinching the back. In small animals with old protrusions 
the part may have to be cut off close to the anus and a 
few stitches passed through the edges to keep them in ap- 
position. "When returned a truss should be applied as for 
everted uterus or vagina and a spare, laxative diet allowed, 
nourishing or not according to the needs of the patient. 

PILES. 

These are dilatation of the veins on the inner and outer 
sides of the anus, with exudation and fibrous thickening 



260 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

of the surrounding connective tissue to form rounded 
swellings. They are reported in all domestic animals but 
are especially common in dogs. Melanotic tumors in 
horses are often confounded with them. They are gener- 
ally connected with torpid, inactive liver and an aggra- 
vated costiveness, straining and the presence of irritants 
in the large intestines. Dogs draw the anus along the 
ground as in intestinal worms, pass hardened, blood- 
streaked dung, with much straining, pain and sharp cries, 
and present around the anus bluish tumors which bleed 
freely if wounded and are connected with the terminal end 
of the gut that hangs out through the opening. The gen- 
eral health rarely suffers much. In other animals there 
is itching, switching and rubbing of the tail with the char- 
acteristic tumors and much straining and difficulty in pass- 
ing dung. Treat by mild laxatives (sulphate of soda and 
common salt, 3 ozs. daily for the large and 20 to 30 grains 
for the small quadrupeds ; or podophyllin in one-fifth the 
usual doses, daily). Give moderately of laxative, easily- 
digested food and maintain tone by bitters (nux vomica). 
Locally bathe with tepid solutions of opium, stramonium 
and astringents (sugar of lead, alum, tannin, sulphurous acid, 
benzoated oxide of zinc ointment). Check bleeding by solu- 
tions of sulphate of iron or matico. It is sometimes neces- 
sary to remove with the ligature, or clamp and hot iron. 

FISTULA IN ANUS. 

This is a communication between a suppurating sore and 
the terminal part of the rectum. There are usually two 
openings, one into the gut and the other close beside the 
anus. The rational treatment is to remove any foreign 
body or other cause of irritation and then passing an india 
rubber cord through the canal, to bring the end from the 
internal wound out through the anus and, stretching the 
rubber, to tie both together after which by its elasticity it 
slowly cuts its way through, while the wound steadily 
heals behind. 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 261 

IMPERFORATE ANUS. 

This is not uncommon in young animals and may be 
relieved by a free incision as soon as* the accumulation of 
dung in the end of the rectum furnishes a firm pad on 
which to cut. The incision must be made in the centre 
of the firm muscular ring that should have encircled the 
opening, and which may be easily felt. In mares sponta- 
neous relief is often obtained by a rupture into the vagina. 
If the gut as well as the opening is wanting, there is no 
remedy. 

PERITONITIS.. INFLAMMATION OF THE LINING MEMBRANE OF 
THE ABDOMEN. 

This occurs in all domestic animals and may be limited 
to a particular part or may be general. It is mostly 
caused by mechanical injuries, as wounds of the abdom- 
inal walls — surgical or otherwise, or by rupture of an ab- 
scess, of the stomach, intestine, bladder or womb. It 
may also result from sudden changes of weather, chills 
from exposure to excessive cold, to frigid showers or dews 
or to a wet bed after perspiration and fatigue. This is of 
course most frequent in horses and oxen. Similar expos- 
ure to cold is a common cause of peritonitis after wounds 
of the abdomen, as in castration. 

Symptoms. If very circumscribed there may be simply 
slight colic, worse at one time than another, with acute 
pain when the affected part is pressed. When more gen- 
eral there is shivering followed by a hot stage, colic, stiff- 
ness of the hind limbs, especially in the smaller animals, 
swelling, tension and great tenderness of the abdomen, 
constipation, or in rare cases, watery or even bloody diar- 
rhoea, complete loss of appetite, vomiting in animals capa- 
ble of this act, quick, catching breathing and rapid hard 
pulse, becoming softer, weaker and smaller when serous 
effusion takes place. Effusion is further attended by a 
relief from the colics and tenderness, a more sunken eye, 
pallid mucous membranes, deeper breathing, and a mora 



202 The Farmer 1 s Veterinary Adviser. 

pendent belly with a sense of fluctuation when it is hand- 
led. In ruminants the right side is especially tender and 
the animal stands crouching with its four feet near to- 
gether. The wound of the abdomen usually completes 
the list of symptoms. 

Treatment. The abdomen may sometimes be cupped 
or leeched with advantage, though warm fomentations or 
poultices, (or even warm baths for small animals) followed 
by mustard poultices, are more generally applicable. 
Then the preparations of opium may be given in full and 
frequent doses to allay pain and keep the bowels inactive. 
Well-boiled gruels may be given frequently as injections, 
as what is thrown on the stomach is usually vomited or 
lies unabsorbed. During recovery great care must be 
exercised in feeding. Decoctions of linseed, or well-boiled 
gruels of oat, barley or rye-meal should gradually give 
place to soft warm bran mashes and finally to hay and 
ordinary food. The carnivora may have beef tea. Ano- 
dynes (opium, prussic acid,) may be given to relieve pain 
and diuretics (nitre, digitalis, sweet spirits of nitre, etc.,) 
employed to remove the effusion. Tonics (oxide of iron, 
gentian, cinchona, etc.,) may be demanded and occa- 
sionally mustard poultices to remove tenderness. 

ASCITES. DEOPSY OF THE ABDOMEN. 

This may be a result of peritonitis, of obstruction to 
the flow of blood through the intestinal (portal) veins as 
in diseased liver, spleen, pancreas, mesenteric glands, 
valves of the heart, etc., or finally it may depend on an 
unduly watery state of the blood as in certain parasitic 
and other disorders. 

Symptoms. Distended (pot) belly, loose and pendulous, 
with hollow flanks, or if the liquid is more abundant, 
rounded and tense. Fluctuation is easily felt if pressure 
is made at two different points, and percussion elicits a 
dull dead sound in place of the normal drum-like reso- 
nance of the bowels. The urine is scanty, appetite and 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 263 

digestion impaired, breathing deep and excited, condition 
poor and getting worse, hair dry, rough, erect and often 
shedding, and swellings appear along the lower part of 
the body into the limbs and chest. 

Treatment. Find out and remove if possible the true 
primary cause. When that has ceased to act employ 
purgatives, but especially diuretics (digitalis, oil of tur- 
pentine, iodide of potassium, squills, colchicum, nitre, etc.,) 
in as full doses as the strength will permit, with tonics 
(sulphate of iron, gentian, nux vomica,) and apply tinct- 
ure of iodine over the abdomen. The liquid may be drawn 
off with a fine cannula and trocar, one-half only being 
extracted at a time, and the flaccid walls at once sup 
ported by a tight bandage encircling the body. 

GASTRIC AND INTESTINAL PARASITES. 

Larva oe Insects. — Bots. These are the larva of four 
different species of gadfly that pester horses in summer 

Fig. 20. Fig. 22. 




Fig. 20— Bot-fly. CEstrus Equi. 

Fig. 21. 



Fig 22 — Bots hooked on the mucous 
Fig. 21 — Bot. Larva of CEstrus. membrane of the stomach. 

and autumn, gluing their little white ovoid eggs on the 
long hairs beneath the jaws, on the breast, shoulders and 
fore limbs on which the empty shells may be carried 
through the winter. "When the horse licks himself the live 
smbryo is extracted from the egg and swallowed or in the 



264 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

case of those beneath the jaws they fall into the food and 
are devoured with it. By the aid of the hooks around 
their heads they attach themselves to the mucous mem- 
brane mainly of the left half of the stomach but often also 
of other parts such as the right side of the stomach, the 
duodenum or small gut leading from the stomach, and the 
throat. There they steadily grow in the winter and in 
spring pass out with the dung, burrow in the soil and are 
transformed into the gadfly. The disturbance they cause 
depends on their numbers and the portions of the canal 
on which they attach themselves. In the throat they 
produce a chronic sore-throat and discharge from the nose 
which continues until the following spring, unless they are 
previously extracted with the hand. In the left half of 
the stomach which is covered with a thick insensible cuti- 
cle they do little harm when in small numbers, hence 
Bracy Clark supposed them to be rather beneficial in 
stimulating the secretion of gastric juice. When very 
numerous and above all when attached to the highly 
sensitive right half of the stomach or the duodenum they 
seriously interfere with digestion, causing the animals to 
thrive badly, to be weak and easily sweated or fatigued, 
and even determining sudden and fatal indigestions. This 
last result is especially liable to occur in spring or early 
summer, when the bots are passing out in great numbers 
and hooking themselves at intervals to the coats of the 
sensitive bowels in their course. They will sometimes 
accumulate in such numbers as actually to block the pas- 
sage. They even attach themselves to the skin outside 
ihe anus causing the animal to go awkwardly, to switch his 
tail and give other signs of extreme discomfort until the 
tail is raised and the offender discovered and removed. 
Alleged perforations of the stomach by bots are usually 
ruptures, the result of indigestion. 

The irritation caused by their presence is not easily 
distinguished from other forms of indigestion and colic. 
It may be tympanitic or not, accompanied or not with 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 265 

diarrhoea, and of the most variable intensity. If occurring 
after a period of abstinence when the worms are presum- 
ably hungry, or if in spring or early summer, if the bots 
are found passing with the dung, if the horse turns up his 
lip as if nauseated, and if the margins of the tongue are red 
and fiery there will be so much more corroborative evi- 
dence. 

Treatment. In cases of irritation following abstinence 
give potato juice, gruels, etc., to feed and quiet the bots, 
adding some anodyne (opium, hyocyamus,) or mucilagin- 
ous agents (gum Arabic, boiled linseed, mallow, slippery 
elm,) if it appears necessary. 

We cannot certainly kill the bots in the stomach, as they 
will resist the strongest acids and alkalies, the most irrespir- 
able and poisonous gases, the most potent narcotics and 
mineral poisons, empyreumatic oils, etc. Oil of turpentine, 
carbolic acid, bryony, ether and benzine have been relied on 
by different practitioners but none of them are quite sat- 
isfactory. It seems provable that these like other vermi- 
fuges will act best in autumn or early winter before the 
larva has acquired his hard, horny coat of mail, and at 
this time accordingly they may be given with more con- 
fidence. The azedarach (pride of China) grown around 
stables in the South to protect from bots, probably acts in 
this way, if at all, being cropped and swallowed by the an- 
imals while the bots are still white, soft and permeable to 
liquids. 

The colics are to be treated by anti-spasmodics (tobac- 
co, stramonium, laudanum, etc.,) and mild laxatives, and 
the animal must be well fed to support him under the 
drain and to keep the parasite gorged, lazy and non-irri- 
tating. In summer when the bots are coming away their 
exit may be precipitated by a good dose of physic. 

Prevention. Trim off the long hairs of the jaws, breast, 
shoulder and fore limbs and apply a little oil daily to pre- 
vent the eggs from adhering. Or brush off the eggs with 
soap-suds daily before they have had time to hatch in the 



2GG The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



sun. A piece of cloth, extended across beneath the jaws 
is often employed to protect this part. 

Rat-tailed maggots the larvae of hehphilus are also found 
in horses' intestines but are not known to be injurious. 

Fig. 23. 



Fig. 23 — Helophilus. 
INTESTINAL WORMS. 

These are arranged in four classes : 1. The tape-worms^ 
consisting of flat bodies made up of a succession of seg- 
ments or links, with a narrow neck and small head, and 
divided into tape-worms proper, which are round-headed, 
and bothriocephali, which are flat-headed with lateral 
openings ; 2. the flukes, soft-bodied, flattened, leaf -like or 
ovoid worms, with digestive organs and a variable num- 
ber of sucking discs ; 3. the thorn-headed worms, with long 
rounded bodies and retractile snouts furnished with 
hooks by which they attach themselves to the mucous 
membrane, but neither mouth nor digestive canal; 4. 
lastly, the round worms which differ from the last in the 
absence of a protractile, hooked snout and the pos- 
session of mouth and digestive canal. The horse 
harbors in his intestinal canal at least three tape- 
worms and seven round worms ; the ox, two tape-worms, 
two flukes and five round worms ; the sheep, one tape- 
worm, one fluke and seven round worms ; the pig, one 
thorn-headed worm and five round worms ; the dog, thir- 
teen tape-worms, one fluke and five round worms ; the cat, 
five tape- worms, three flukes and three round worms ; the 
rabbit, one tape-worm and three round worms ; the goose 
and duck, nine tape-worms, seven flukes, one thorn-headed 
worm and seven round worms; the chicken, four tape- 
worms, two flukes and seven round worms ; and the tur- 
key and pigeon, at least two round worms each. Of these 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 



267 



eighty-eight worms of the digestive organs it is useless to 
attempt any description in a work of the present limits, so 
that our attention must be mainly confined to their symp- 
toms and treatment. For further information the reader 
is referred to the author's larger work or to those of 
Leuckhart, Diesing, Dujardin, Baillet, Cobbold and othei 
helminthologists. 

The transformations of tape-worms have been already 
referred to under parasites, and those of flukes under dip 
Fig. 24. Fig. 25. 




Fig. 24 — Sclerostomum Equinum. 
Mature and young forms, nat. size. 



Fig. 25 — Oxyuris Curvula. 
I Female; 2 male, nat. size. 



eases of the liver. The thorn-headed worms lay their eggs 
within the body of their host, and these being passed with 
the dung are swallowed by crustaceans in which they en- 
cyst themselves and develop the characters of the adult 
worm in miniature, but remain very minute and fail to at- 
tain their full size till their host is swallowed by another 
animal. Among domestic animals ducks and pigs harbor 
these, probably because of their carnivorous appetite. The 
round worms mostly live in their young and immature con- 
dition, out of the body, in water or moist earth or on veg- 



268 



The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



etables (see lung-worms, verminous bronchitis,) but some are 
exceptions, like the common pin-worm of the horse (Scler- 
ostomum Equinum) which lives in pill-like masses of 
dang, in little pouches and closed cysts of the mucous 



Fig. 26. 



Fig. 27. 




Fig. 27 — Trichocephalus Affink, 



nat. size. 



Fig. 28. 




Fig. 26 — Ascaris Megalacephala. Fig. 28 — Head of Taenia Expansa 

membrane of the large intestine and in dilatations of the 
blood-vessels, especially the arteries of the bowels. This, 
with two other common pin-worms of the horse (Scleros- 
tomum Tetracanthum, Oxyuris Curvnla,) are each aboxii 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 



269 



an inch in length and all inhabit the large intestine in their 
adult condition, sometimes becoming so numerous in a 
district as to cause an epizootic. Another round worm 
(Ascaris Megalacephala) about six inches long is very com- 
mon in the horse's small intestine. 

Cattle suffer less from intestinal worms, but the follow- 
ing are not infrequently injurious, especially to calves. 
The long tape-worni (Taenia Expansa), Ascaris Bovis (like 
a common earth-worm), the hair-headed worm (Tricoceph- 

Fig. 29. Fig. 31. 




Ffg. 29 — Head of Echinorynchus 
Gigas. 

Fig. 30. 





Fig. 30 — Spiroptera Strongylina; Fig. 31 — Ascaris Suilla. 

a, nat. size ; b, tail enlarged. 

alus Affinis), the Sclerostomum Hypostomum and Stron- 
gylus Eadiatus. 

Sheep suffer severely, especially from the long tape- 
worm, Sclerostomum Hypostomum, Strongylus Fillicollis, 
S. Oontortus, Dochmius Cernuus and Tricocephalus Affinis. 
The thick portion of the body of the last is about an inch 
long, the other round worms are mostly under an inch and 
a half. The tape-worm is usually three feet or under, but 
is alleged to gain a length of twenty, thirty and even one 
hundred feet. 



270 



The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



Surine suffer severely from a thorn-headed worm (Echin- 
orynchus Gigas) from three to eighteen inches long; a 
hair-headed worm (Tricocephalus Crenatus) a little 
smaller than the ruminant's; an ascaris (A. Suilla) like 
that of ruminants ; the Sclerostomum Dentatum, three to 
five lines in length, and the Trichina Spiralis, one-eight 
eenth to one-sixth inch long. 

Fig. 32. Fig. 34. 




Fig. 33. 





Fig. 35 




Fig. 36. 




Fig. 32 — Head of Dog's Tape-worm (T. Cucumerina). Larval form in the 
dog-louse (Trichodectes Cani). Fig. 33 — Head of Dog's Tape-worm (T. 
Marginata). Fig. 34 — Cyst of same (Cysticercus Tenuicollis) infests rumi- 
nants, omnivora, etc. Fig. 35 — Ascaris Marginata, nat size. Fig. 36— 
Ascaris Mystax, nat. size. 

In addition to the tape-worms mentioned in the general 
articles on parasites, the dog suffers much from others, as 
from the following round worms : Ascaris Marginata, two 
to four inches long; Spiroptera Sanguinolenta, one and 
one-half to three inches long ; Strongylus Trigonocepha- 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 271 

lus and Dochmius Trigonocephahis, each under one -hail 
inch ; and Tricocephalus Depressiusculus, the thick part 
of which is about one-half inch. One worm of the cat, 
Ascaris Mystax, one to three inches long, deserves men- 
tion because of its being harbored also in the human intes- 
tine. 

General Symptoms of Intestinal Worms. These are 
shown when worms are present in large numbers, when 
they attach themselves to the mucous membranes or when 
they bore through these to reach other parts. There are 
general signs of ill-health, poor condition, pot-belly, hide- 
bound, a scurfy, dry state of the skin, often with itching, 
irregular and usually voracious appetite, foetid breath, di- 
arrhoea alternating with costiveness, the passage of mu- 
cus with the dung, slight, colicky pains with tympany, es- 
pecially in the morning before feeding, a puffy swelling 
and itch in ess of the anus, which is often surrounded with 
a fur of dried mucus, and above all, the passage of the worms 
or their eggs. 

In the horse there is often a tendency to elevate the up- 
per lip and to rub it against wall or manger, to lick earth 
or lime, or to shake the tail or rub out the hair about its root. 
There may, though rarely, be severe flatulent or spasmodic 
colic, enteritis or peritonitis. 

In cattle there are advancing emaciation, depraved or va- 
riable appetite, impaired rumination, colics, tympanies 
and foetid. breath. 

Sheep lose appetite, scour, suffer from thirst, wasting, 
bloodless eyes, clapped, unhealthy or shedding wool, a 
desire to eat earth, itching anus shown by frequent shak- 
ing of the tail, and finally dropsical effusions in the chest 
and belly and beneath the lower part of the body. They 
become dull, hopeless-looking and leave the flock. 

Swine beside the general symptoms have unusual vorac- 
ity, and yet lose flesh, cough, scour, start from rest or 
sleep with a sharp cry, scream excessively just before 
feeding, have colicky pains, tender abdomen and vomiting, 



272 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



and many even suffer from palpitations (thumps), vertigo 
or convulsions. 

Dogs suffer from inordinate appetite, wasting, itcliy 
skin, staring coat or loss of hair, indigestions, colics, oc- 
casional scouring or vomiting, foetid breath, and itching 
anus shown by their frequently licking it or drawing it 
along the ground. Like swine they may show irritable 
temper, starting without cause, palpitations, vertigo or 
convulsions. 

Treatment. This may be divided into the administration 
of agents to kill the worms, of purgatives to carry off them 
and their eggs, and of ionics to overcome the weakness and 
the accumulations of mucus in which they live and thrive. 

The diet for lierbivora should be grain in summer, or in 
winter sound natural hay salted, with carrots, turnips or 
beets, and, in the horse at least, some of the more nutri- 
tive grains (oats, barley, beans, corn, linseed cake, etc.,) 
ground or unground. Pigs may also have green food, 
roots, a liberal supply of grain, and if available, buttermilk. 
Dogs may have salt meat with soups and milk. 

Before giving a vermifuge let the bowels be cleared out 
by a purgative (horse, aloes ; ox or sheep, Glauber salts ; 
swine, dog or chicken, castor-oil). It should also be 
given fasting before the morning's feed and, if the worms 
exist in the large intestines, by injection as well as by the 
mouth. 

A great list of vermifuges may be mentioned, some de- 
structive to intestinal worms in general; others particu- 
larly adapted to specific parasites; while some that are 
safe and efficacious for one class of patients would prove 
poisonous to another. 

One class destroys worms by the mechanical irritation of 
their skin and perhaps their intestinal canal. It includes 
iron filings, granulated tin or tin filings, very finely pow- 
dered glass, and cowhage. These are given in doses of 
\ oz. to the large quadrupeds, 1 dr. to sheep and swine, 
or 1 scr. to dogs, made into a ball with linseeed meal 



Diseases of the Digestive Organs. 273 

and syrup. They may be repeated daily for a week and 
followed by a smart purge. 

Bitters (quassia, cinchona, gentian, wormwood,) are 
often beneficial though mainly acting as tonics. For 
worms in the last gut a concentrated solution as an in- 
jection acts well. 

Among the more direct vermifuges are : Common salt 
allowed to be licked at will (must not be mixed in large 
amount in the food of swine or chickens) ; oil of turpen- 
tine ; calomel ; tartar emetic with sulphate of iron, for six 
mornings running, and followed by a purge ; empyreu- 
matic oils, and especially those coming off at a slightly 
lower temperature than creosote and carbolic acid ; azed- 
arach ; Spigelia marilandica (pinkroot) ; santonine ; sul- 
phuric ether ; asafcetida ; tansy ; savin, etc. These are 
general vermifuges and may be used especially for the 
round worms. 

For tape-worms use areca nut ; kousso ; root of male 
shield-fern ; pomegranate root bark ; kameela ; pumpkin 
seeds; ailanthus glandulosa; or oil of turpentine. In 
every case the agent should be given fasting, it may even 
be repeated at the end of four hours and should be 
followed by a smart purge. For weak animals areca nut 
is especially suitable. 

A course of tonics (sulphate of iron, gentian, columba,) 
should follow with sound nourishing diet and pure water. 

In the case of the Sclerostomum Equinum, it will usually 
be needful to repeat the treatment at short intervals to 
kill the young worms which have escaped because of their 
being buried in the mucous membrane. 

Prevention is to be sought by measures advised under 
lung-worms, especial attention being given to sound bchjv 
ishing food and pure water. 
18 



CHAPTER X. 
DISEASES OF THE LIVER 

Effects of deranged functions of the liver. General symptoms and causes. 
Saccharine urine, Diabetes Mellitus. Blood-poisoning from imperfect oxida- 
tion of albuminoids, Azotsemia, Azoturia, Enzootic Hsematuria, Spinal 
Meningitis. Red-water in cattle, sheep and pigs. Wood Evil. Jaundice, 
Icterus, the Yellows. Congestion of the liver. Rupture of the liver. In- 
flammation of the liver, Hepatitis. Chronic inflammation of the liver. 
Results of hepatitis. Gall-Stones, Biliary Calculi. Fatty degeneration. 
Tubercle. Cancer. Hypertrophy. Atrophy. Parasitic diseases of the 
liver. Liver-rot, Fluke-disease. Fasciola Hepatica. Distomum Lanceo- 
latura. 

Only now, when the functions of the liver are being 
more fully discovered, do we begin to apprehend the full 
importance of its various disorders. Formerly this organ 
was supposed to have exhausted its functions in the secre- 
tion of bile, and the various modifications and impaired 
discharge of this product together with inflammation, 
morbid growths and degenerations circumscribed the list 
of hepatic diseases. But the recognition of the formation 
of glycogen and cholesterine in the liver, together with urea 
and other less perfectly oxidized nitrogenous bodies which 
pass into the blood in place of being discharged with the 
bile, points to the liver as the chief local seat of various 
disorders such as diabetes, cholesterine plugging of ves 
sels, blood-poisoning from imperfectly oxidized albumi- 
noids, and urinary calculi. 

General Symptoms. These may be stated shortly as 
follows : obesity, sluggishness, irregular bowels, the dung 
being abundant, liquid and deep yellow or orange from 



Diseases of the Liver. 275 

excess? of bile in active congestions of the liver, or on the 
contrary there may be costiveness, with light-colored, 
foetid, imperfectly digested stools in cases in which bile is 
not secreted or is debarred from entering the bowels by 
some mechanical obstruction ; lameness in the right fore 
limb, or even in one or more of the remaining members, 
without any observable local cause ; cramps and even 
paralysis in the severer cases with poisonous products 
thrown into the blood ; a tardy pulse sometimes not more 
than half its natural number ; yellow or orange color of 
the eyes and other visible mucous membranes, and of the 
urine in cases of obstructed bile-ducts or intestines with 
reabsorption of bile, or in destruction of blood-cells by 
taurocholic acid and other products abnormally present in 
the blood ; tenderness or groaning when the last ribs are 
pinched or struck with the closed fist ; a yellow or orange 
fur may sometimes be seen universally diffused or in cir- 
cumscribed spots on the upper surface of the tongue ; the 
presence in the urine of deep brown or reddish granular 
deposits replacing urea is another sign of liver disorder. 
Obstructed circulation in the liver causes congestion of the 
portal vein, engorged spleen, intestinal catarrh, effusion of 
blood on the bowels, piles, dropsy of the abdomen, and 
swelling of the hind limbs. These may therefore be at- 
tendant symptoms. 

The conditions in which animals live may further assist 
our decision in suggesting an efficient cause. The fat, idle, 
overfed and pampered stock are especially subject to liver 
disease, and more particularly if kept in close, hot, damp 
buildings or climates, or supplied with putrid water or 
unwholesome food. Thus the pampered family horse, the 
idle farm horse during our long winters, the high-bred ox, 
sheep, and pig in which everything has been sacrificed to 
secure excellence as meat producers, the pet dog, and the 
Brahmas, Cochins and other plump hens of Asiatic ex- 
traction, present frequent examples of liver diseise. The 
stabled animal is more subject to it than those running at 



276 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

pasture, and the subject liberally fed on dry fodder than 
that nourished on succulent green food. Then the deni- 
zen of the warm latitude and damp miasmatic soil is more 
liable than others. 

SACCHARINE URINE, DIABETES MET.LTTUS. 

Very rare in the lower animals but has been seen in 
carnivora (dogs), omnivora (monkeys), cattle and even in 
the horse. Temporary sweetness of the urine is not dis- 
ease, but if permanent it may be referred to excessive 
production of glycogen in the liver which is probably 
always enlarged (Bernard) ; or less frequently to the fail- 
ure of the liver to transform the sugar of the food into 
glycogen ; or it may be from disease of the medulla oblon- 
gata (apoplexy) or of some part which exerts an irritant 
reflex action on the base of the brain. It has been pro- 
duced experimentally by giving alcohol, ether, chloroform, 
quinia, ammonia, arsenic, phosphoric acid, and woorali. 

Symptoms. Eapid loss of condition, scurfy, unthrifty 
skin, costive bowels, indigestion, ardent thirst, and exces- 
sive secretion of urine of a high specific gravity — horse 
and ox, 1060; pig, goat and sheep, 1030 and upward. 
The tests for sugar are: 1. taste; 2. fermentation when 
yeast is added and the whole allowed to stand in a warm 
temperature; 3. the addition to a little of the urine in 
a test-tube of a few drops of solution of blue vitriol, and 
a considerable excess of potassa, and boiling the liquid foi 
a moment when if sugar is present there is a deposit of the 
yellowish-brown suboxide of copper. 

Treatment. Barely successful. The best results are to 
be expected in cases in which an active cause, such as dis- 
ease of the liver, lungs or brain, can be recognized and 
kept in check or cured. Thus with liver disease, laxatives, 
alkalies, pure air and water, green or otherwise laxative 
food, and cupping, mild blistering or even leeching over 
the spare-ribs, may be beneficial. In lung disease the 
treatment must correspond to its nature, whether inflam- 



Diseases of the Liver. 277 

matory, tuberculous or otherwise. Tonics and stomachics 
are almost always demanded. All the bitters, tincture of 
iron, the mineral acids and carbonate of soda have been 
used with profit. Opium, which checks the excretion of 
sugar, is injurious by impairing digestion. Lactic acid has 
repeatedly succeeded at the expense of a severe attack of 
rheumatism. Free secretion from the skin is beneficial 
and should be encouraged by warm clothing, baths and 
climate. Diet should be mainly albuminous, such as bran 
mashes and gruels, peas, beans, vetches, flesh deprived of 
fat, etc. 

BLOOD-POISONING FKOM IMPERFECT OXIDATION OF ALBUMINOIDS. 
AZOTEMIA. AZOTURIA. HEMOGLOBINURIA. 

Variously described in the books as disease of the kid- 
neys and spinal cord, this is really due to disease of the 
liver which fails to effect the transformation of albumi- 
noids into urea, and entails an accumulation in the gland 
and in the circulating fluid of partially oxidized products, 
such as leucin and tyrosin, which pass off in variable 
amount by the kidneys. It attacks almost exclusively 
horses which have stood idle in the stable for a few days, 
on good diet, and are then taken out and subjected to ac- 
tive exertion. 

Symptoms, etc. These are very variable. In the mild- 
est forms there is only some lameness and muscular trem- 
bling in a particular limb, without apparent cause, brought 
on by sudden exertion and attended by a dusky-brown 
color of the membranes of the eye and nose and some 
signs of tenderness when the short ribs are struck. This 
may be entirely cured by a course of gentle laxatives (pod- 
ophyllin, 1 scr.) and diuretics (colchicum, muriate of am- 
monia, taraxacum, nitre,) and a gradual inuring to work, 
beginning with the slightest exertion and increasing day 
by day as the condition improves. The worst forms come 
on during or after driving, it may be not more than one 



278 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

hundred yards, the fire and life suddenly giving place tc 
anxiety and despondency, the subject seems to be in vio- 
lent pain, the flanks heave, the nostrils are dilated, the 
face is pinched, the surface is drenched in perspiration, 
the body trembling violently, the limbs weak, so that they 
sway and bend, while the animal walks crouchingly behind 
and soon goes down unable to support himself. If urine 
is passed it is high-colored, dark brown, red or black, and 
is usually thought bloody, but it contains neither clots nor 
blood-corpuscles, its color being due to the imperfectly 
oxidized albuminoids mixed with an excess of urea. When 
the patient is down the limbs and whole body are still 
convulsed at intervals, but are beyond the control of the 
animal, showing the poisonous effect on the nervous sys- 
tem. The pulse is variable but high and the temperature 
of the body normal at first, though it rises slightly if the 
animal survives. Death may ensue in a few hours or days, 
or improvement manifested at any period may go on to 
complete recovery. The blood is dark, diffluent, clots 
loosely if at all, and smells strongly. In some cases of re- 
covery a partial paralysis of the hind limbs or wasting of 
the crural nerve and muscles above the stifle will some- 
times persist for a time, showing structural nervous disease. 

Prevention is to be sought by regular daily exercise. In 
the case of horses which have had a period of absolute 
repose, submit to walking exercise only, at first, and in- 
crease this day by day until they have attained good, hard 
condition. 

Treatment. Clear out the bowels and unload the por- 
tal vein and liver by active purgatives. Podophyllin £ 
drachm, aloes 4 drachms, may be given by the mouth, and 
copious injections of soap-suds with oil or salts by the 
anus until the bowels respond, in which case a favorable 
termination may be hoped for. Drachm doses of bromide 
of potassium may be given frequently to calm nervous dis- 
order, and when the bowels have responded half drachm 
doses of colchicum and drachm doses of muriate of 



Diseases of tlie Liver. 279 

ammonia three times a day. Warm fomentations to 
the body, but especially to the loins, are beneficial, alike 
in soothing irritation in the liver, spinal marrow and kid- 
neys, and in securing a free perspiration and the elimina- 
tion of morbid matters by the skin. They may be replaced 
by a newly removed sheep-skin applied with the fleshy 
side in, and followed by a mustard poultice. When the 
appetite returns the diet must be of sloppy mashes and 
moderate in quantity. 

In case the paralysis persists after the acute symptoms 
have subsided, treat as for functional paralysis. 

WOOD EVIL. RED WATEE OF CATTLE, SHEEP AND PIGS. 

Under this name we designate a malady generally de- 
scribed as bloody urine (hoematuria), but as the liquid does 
Hot usually contain blood globules or clots, and as the 
liver is almost invariably enlarged and softened and the 
blood elements are largely destroyed, it must be conceded 
that the affection is more intimately associated with disor- 
der of the hepatic functions than of any other. The cause, 
which may be stated as feeding on irritant and unwhole- 
some food, is such as is calculated to disorder the digest- 
ive organs and liver. The blood seems to suffer second- 
arily, though it is by no means disproved that other blood- 
forming functions beside those of the liver are involved. 
The blood itself is usually thin, watery and comparatively 
incoagulable, with a deficiency of fibrine, albumen and red 
globules — the last named elements being smaller than nat- 
ural and irregularly notched around their margins. The 
urine varies in color from a simple reddish tinge through 
the various shades of red and brown to black. It contains 
albumen and various albuminoid agents, excess of urea, 
cholesterine and phosphates, implying hepatic disturbance 
and destructive changes taking place in the blood. 

This is essentially a disease of unimproved localities 
and attacks animals fed too exclusively on products of 
such land, which are naturally stimulating to the digest- 



280 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



ive organs and liver. Turnips and other saccharine roots, 
though perfectly safe from ordinary soils, are dangerous 
from these, and in the natural meadows and woods the 
young shoots of resinous trees (coniferse) and the acrid 
plants of the ranunculus, colchicum and asclepias families, 
etc., are held to produce it. Its prevalence in woods and 
uncultivated meadows has procured for it in almost all 
European countries some name equivalent to wood disease. 
An important element in the causation is the existence of 
soil rich in organic matter and soured by the stagnation 
of water owing to a clay or otherwise impervious subsoil. 
Cows are very susceptible just after calving and often per- 
ish. 

Symptoms. Dullness, languor, weakness, especially of 
the hind limbs, trembling, surface coldness, staring coat, 
dry muzzle, hot mouth and horns and diminution of the 
milk which is white and frothy and may throw down a red- 
dish sediment. Appetite is lost, thirst ardent, pulse small 
and weak, beats of the heart tumultuous, amounting to palpi- 
tation in the parturient cases, bowels at first relaxed after- 
ward costive, abdomen tender, urine passed frequently in 
small quantity and often with suffering. Colicky pains 
are often a marked symptom when the irritation of the 
bowels is extreme. Delirium even will set in in bad cases 
and death usually supervenes on a state of extreme pros- 
tration. 

Prevention may be sought in thorough drainage; in 
restricting the allowance of objectionable food and supple- 
menting it with sound dry grain and fodder ; in the avoid- 
ance of damp, woody and natural meadows in spring until 
there is a good growth of grass, and in the rejection of hay 
from faulty pastures containing an excess of acrid plants. 

Treatment. At the onset of the disease nothing succeeds 
better than a free evacuation of the bowels and depletion 
of the portal vein and liver by an active purgative. When 
there is no abdominal pain or other sign of inflammation 
of the bowels, salts or any other active purgative will suf- 



Diseases of the Liver. 281 



fice, but with, colic and tenderness of the abdomen, we 
must restrict our choice to olive-oil, and other bland ma- 
terials. In advanced and weak conditions, decoctions of 
linseed should be resorted to. The animal is to be sup- 
ported by diffusible stimulants and iron tonics, with chlo- 
rate of potassa, and the bowels sheathed and protected by 
infusions of slippery elm, or mallow, decoctions of linseed, 
eggs, milk or mucilage ; diet should consist of linseed decoc- 
tions, well-boiled gruels, bran mashes, and other nutritive 
and easily digested food. 

JAUNDICE. ICTEEUS. THE YELLOWS. 

This name is given to that condition in which the visi- 
ble mucous membranes, the skin — if white — the urine and 
the tissues are stained yellow? orange or brown by bile 
coloring matter. It is only a symptom of various disor- 
ders, but is so specific in its characters that the name bids 
fair to be retained for the state. It is not caused as once 
supposed by the non-secretion of bile from the blood, but 
by the re-absorption of bile already secreted. 

This absorption may be determined by various cases. 
1. Obstruction of the bile duct, by gall-stones, parasites, 
foreign bodies entering from the gut, fibrous or spasmodic 
stricture of the duct, infl ammation or ulceration and swell- 
ing of the mucous membrane of the canal, or the intestine 
near the opening, tumors or overloaded intestines. 2. 
Obstruction of the bowels which hinders the discharge 
of the bile. 3. Diminished fullness of the capillary ves 
sels of the liver from partial mechanical obstruction ol 
hepatic artery or aorta. 4 Excessive secretion of bile in 
congested states of the liver. 

Jaundice may also result from imperfect metamorpho- 
sis of the re-absorbed bile, as in certain fevers (anthrax, 
Texan-fever, hog-cholera, purpura hemorrhagica,) in 
blood-poisoning, (septic matter, snake venom, phospho- 
rus, mercury, copper, antimony, chloroform, ether, car- 
bonic acid). It may farther result from the breaking down 



282 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

of red blood-globules and liberation of their coloring mat- 
ter to stain the blood and textures. This may be caused 
by excess in the blood of water, bile acids (taurocholates) 
alkalies, nitrites, ether or chloroform. It may result from 
freezing, burning, (140° F.) and frictional and induction 
currents of electricity. It is noticeable that the coloring 
matter in the blood of solipeds is very easily dissolved 
and that of carnivora only with difficulty. Hence the 
frequency of a dusky or jaundiced appearance of the mem- 
branes in horses and its comparative harmlessness, as 
contrasted with similar conditions in the dog. It is further 
probable that the re-absorbed bile acids are transformed 
into bile pigment in certain states of the blood. 

Symptoms. General coloration of all the tissues, but 
especially the mucous membranes of a yellow, or over 
large veins of a greenish hue, and also of the urine. "When 
there is obstruction of the bile duct, the dung is devoid 
of bile, foetid and often clayey in appearance, but if from 
other causes it may retain its natural color and odor. 

Other symptoms may appear dependent on the nature 
of the attendant disease, or the poisonous action of the 
bile acids, and of various diseased products on the blood, 
while the coloration itself seems to be comparatively harm- 
less. 

Treatment. This will depend on the nature of the cause. 
As a general rule what favors the action of the bowels, 
the free elimination of the bile, and depletion of the portal 
vein and liver will counteract the jaundice. Small daily 
doses of podophyllin, (horse and ox 1 scr.) with one or 
more ounces each of Glauber, Epsom, and common salt, 
as may be needful, will often act very efficiently. Or aloes, 
jalap or calomel, may replace the podophyllin. Taraxa- 
cum may be given either in diuretic or purgative doses, or 
a herbivorous patient may be turned out on a pasturage 
of dandelion ; succulent spring grass indeed is sometimes 
all that is needed. Diuretics are useful in effecting elim- 
ination of the pigment, the carbonates and acetates of po- 



Diseases of the I Aver. 283 

tassa, soda and ammonia being especially good. Bittei 
and other tonics are often valuable in conteracting that im- 
pairment of tone which favors congestion and swelling of 
the stomach, intestine and liver, otherwise the treatment 
must correspond to the nature of the cause when that can 
be ascertained. 

CONGESTION OF THE LTVEE. 

This is common in horses in warm climates, where 
luxuriant grasses (plethora) and hot seasons strongly pre- 
dispose. Hence, in the Southern States, and especially in 
localities which are moist as well, and where malarious 
emanations exist, it may be looked for, but it is also seen 
in pampered idle animals kept in hot close stables any- 
where. Rich food and the comparative absence of waste by 
exercise and breathing throw too much labor on the liver, 
which is rendered liable to clogging and congestion. Among 
the immediate exciting causes may be named sudden 
changes of temperature, emigration from a cold to a warm 
damp region, chills in cold dewy nights after hot days, 
sudden exertion when unfitted for it by long rest and bad 
condition, exertion under intense heat of the sun, and blows 
on the region of the liver, particularly on the young. 
Yenous congestion from imperfect action of the heart 
valves is a cause of hepatic congestion, at once predispos- 
ing and exciting. 

Symptoms. These strongly resemble the severe forms 
of poisoning, by imperfectly elaborated liver products, the 
two conditions being often coexistent and mutually de- 
pendent on each other. There are the sudden prostration, 
dull sunken eyes, pinched anxious face, excited breathing 
and pulse, trembling, swaying limbs, perspiration, sighing, 
and violent colicky pains with frequent looking at the flank, 
lying down and rising. Striking the last ribs with the fist 
causes flinching, groaning, or even attempts to kick 01 
bite, and some jaundice and furring of the tongue are often 
Been. When fainting ensues, this with the pallid mucous 



284 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

membranes and quick, weak pulse, imply rupture of the 
liver and extensive loss of blood. In the slighter attacks 
the symptoms are correspondingly mitigated. 

The attack may subside and end in complete recovery, 
or blood effused into the substance of the liver may be 
slowly absorbed, or organized into fibrous material, or 
ma} determine extensive and fatal softening of the liver, 
or finally the patient may perish in a fainting fit from rupt- 
ure of the liver and loss of blood. 

Treatment. At the outset a free bleeding will often ob- 
viate effusion of blood and rupture and check the disease. 
It must never be resorted to, however, when faiutness, a 
weak, small pulse or a small stream from the orifice im- 
plies already existing effusion. Quiet, mustard poultices 
or other derivatives applied to the limbs and saline pur- 
gatives (1 lb. sulphate of soda) by the mouth, and as in- 
jections will prove valuable in directly depleting the 
portal system and liver. Cold water or ice to the last ribs 
will often serve to check effusion already begun. The 
sulphate of soda may be kept up in small doses (1 to 4 
ozs. daily) and a mustard or other blister may be applied 
over the region of the liver. During treatment the animal 
must have the purest air and, as food, soft bran mashes 
and roots. After recovery feed moderately on sound, eas- 
ily digested food, keep in pasture or airy stable and never 
neglect moderate exercise even for a day. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE LIVER. HEPATITIS. 

Due to the same causes as congestion but much less fre- 
quent. In dogs, beside the general causes we must ac- 
knowledge the influence of sharp-pointed bodies swallowed 
in wantonness, and splinters of bones which perforate the 
stomach and liver. 

Symptoms. At first those of slow congestion already 
referred to. As active inflammation sets in there is less 
violent pain and excitement and more fever. The pulse 
is accelerated, the breathing quickened, especially in in- 



Diseases of the Liver. 285 

flammation of the liver capsule, the region of the last ribs 
is very tender to a blow (on the right side only in rumi- 
nants), the mouth hot and clammy, tongue furred, mucous 
membranes more or less dusky or yellow and the heat of 
the body raised by 2° or upwards. The bowels may be 
at first loose, yellow and bilious but soon are confined, 
the small pellets of dung being covered with a yellowish 
mucus and this state may again give place to a mucous 
diarrhoea. Appetite is usually completely lost, emaciation 
advances rapidly, blood spots and patches appear on the 
visible mucous membranes, and the legs, especially the 
hind ones, swell or stock. Great nervous atony, convul- 
sions or even delirium may appear toward the last. 

In dogs there is great dullness and muscular weakness, 
inclination to he constantly, unsteady gait, dusky or yel- 
low membranes, furred tongue, prominence of the last ribs 
on the right side and tenderness along them and their 
cartilages. When the disease is fully developed the tumid 
edge of the liver may be felt behind the last rib and the 
costal cartilages. A brownish, mucous diarrhoea succeeds 
to the preliminary constipation. Great nervous prostra- 
tion and stupor usually precede death. The disease is 
very fatal in dogs but may merge into the chronic form 
with ascites or end in a perfect recovery. 

Foivls, especially the less lively birds, suffer much from 
hepatitis when well fed and kept in a small poultry-yard. 
They may die suddenly of effusion of blood on the liver 
w ithout any previous signs of illness, or they may droop 
for some days or even weeks prior to death. Any change 
in the habits of closely confined, plethoric fowls shoulcj 
lead to suspicion of liver disease. Ruffled feathers, sink-: 
ing of the head between the wings, sluggishness in run- 
ning or feeding, drooping in a corner alone, with a with- 
ered brownish appearance of the comb and jaundice of 
the skin are especially to be noted. 

Treatment. Bleeding is rarely beneficial and we must 
rely mainly on depletion from the portal system and live} 



286 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

by purgatives, or counter-irritants and change of habits. 
A pound of sulphate of soda may be given at once to the 
larger animals, or an ounce to a shepherd's dog and an 
equivalent amount by injection. Podophyllin, aloes, etc., 
may be used instead. Friction, with loose bandaging oi 
the limbs, with or without excitation with mustard or am- 
monia and cupping, or in small animals leeching over the 
region of the liver or mustard poultices are demanded. 
After the bowels have been freely opened smaller doses of 
Glauber salts or cream of tartar may be given daily to 
keep up a free action of the bowels, and throughout the 
diet must be soft (mashes, roots, green food,) and restricted 
in quantity. Taraxacum with bitter tonics (Peruvian 
bark, gentian, columba, gelsemium, etc.,) will be useful 
during convalescence, and when the herbivorous patient is 
well enough to be pastured in a field well stocked with 
dandelion this may be resorted to. In carnivora and 
swine ipecacuanha and guaiacum are useful in favoring free 
elimination by the bowels and skin. 

Fowls attacked usually die, but the morbid state in which 
the disease takes its origin may be counteracted in the re- 
maining fowls by a free range, by cabbage, cooked pota- 
toes, turnips and other vegetable food in place of grain, 
and a small quantity of salt and Glauber salts in the food 
or water. Excess of common salt is poisonous. 

CHRONIC INFLAMMATION OP THE LIVER. 

This is seen especially in horses and dogs, the liver often 
attaining an enormous size or undergoing fibrous degen- 
eration (cirrhosis). It is attended by the same symptoms 
as the acute form, but these are less urgent and dropsy of 
the belly and legs is a common result. 

It is to be treated in the same manner as the acute form 
but less energetically, mild laxatives with bitters daily and 
above all a free range in the open air; for herbivora, 
sound, juicy pastures and in case of malarious soil or im- 
pure water, a change even for a few miles to a higher lo- 
cality. 



Diseases of the Liver. 287 



BESULTS OF INFLAMMATION OF THE LIVER. 

Beside recovery there may be effusion of blood with soft- 
ening, granular softening, abscess and fibrous induration. 
These if not promptly fatal give rise to wasting diseases 
with general symptoms of liver disorder, but into these 
our space will not permit us to enter. (See the author's 
large work.) 

GALL-STONES. BILIARY CALCULI. 

These are especially common in oxen when subject to 
the dry feeding of winter but are found in all domestic 
animals, often in great numbers. They occur as round 
masses, angular masses when they have lain in contact, or 
as incrustations on the walls of the ducts of which they 
form distinct casts. They often fail to cause manifest 
disorder, but if they obstruct the ducts there is acute spas- 
modic pain in the abdomen, with all the signs of colic, 
tenderness over the last ribs, and more or less jaundice. 
The attacks are liable to recur as new calculi are displaced, 
and the general health suffers. Carnivora vomit, and in 
all diarrhoea may set in if relief is not obtained. Sheep 
generally have incrustations when affected with flukes 
(liver rot). 

The formation of these calculi may usually be prevented 
in herbivora by allowing a fair amount of exercise and 
succulent food, and they nearly always disappear in cattle 
turned out on the rich grasses of spring. Beside these meas- 
ures their removal maybe sought by the daily use of carbon- 
ate and sulphate of soda and common salt, with abundance 
of good water and exercise. During the attacks give anti- 
spasmodics, lobelia, belladonna, hyoscyamus, chloral-hy- 
drate, etc., and keep up hot fomentations perseveringly to 
(he loins and abdomen. Chloral-hydrate and chloroform 
dissolve cholesterine calculi. 

Other affections of the lever, fatty degeneration, tuber- 
cle, cancer, hypertrophy, atrophy, are manifested by the 
general symptoms of hepatic disorders, but space lorbids 
further notice of them here. 



288 The Farmer 's Veterinary Adviser. 



PARASITIC DISEASES OF THE LIVER. 
LIVER-ROT. FLUKE DISEASE. 

This affection is most destructive to sheep, of which it 
has destroyed as many as from one to two million head 
in England alone in certain years. It is immediately 
determined by the presence in the gall ducts of two flat 
leaf-like parasites — the Fasciola Hepatica and the Disto- 
mum Lanceolatum — the first f to 1 inch in length, the 



Fig. 37. 





Fig. 37 — Fasciola Hepatica. 



Fig. 38 — Distomum Lanceolatum. 



second 4 lines. Thesa inhabit the gall ducts of all the 
domestic animals, of many wild animals and even of man, 
but in most of these they do little harm. The eggs of 
these parasites laid in the gall ducts cannot be developed 
there, but pass out with the bile and dung, hatch in pools 
of fresh water in which the embryo floats until it finds 
a mollusk, in which it encysts itself and becomes a brood 
capsule developing many new embryos within it; theso 
embryos may form new brood capsules and thus increase 
their numbers materially, or if swallowed by a mammal 
along with its food or water they develop into the mature 



Diseases of the Liver. 289 



flukes, inhabiting the bile ducts and reproducing them- 
selves only by eggs. The necessity for these intermediate 
generations, and the fact that they can only take place in 
fresh water and in fresh water mollusks, points to thorough 
drainage as the most efficient means of limiting the ravages 
of the parasites. 

In small numbers they do little harm and as they can- 
not multiply within the body their presence may be of no 
consequence, but when present in large numbers they be- 
come most destructive. In certain damp lands stocked 
with these parasites sheep cannot live, no matter how 
well fed, and cattle often perish as well. A single in- 
fested sheep brought on such damp lands will speedily 
stock them, as infested German rams did the colony of 
Victoria in 1855. 

Symjjtoms. Sheep may thrive unusually for a month or 
two, but soon they begin to lose flesh and waste with 
a rapidity that is surprising. The skin and the membranes 
of the nose and eyes become soft and puffy, the naturally 
bright pink vessels of the eye become yellowish, dark, or 
even quite imperceptible, the whole eye assumes a yellow 
tinge, the skin is pale, bloodless, deficient in yolk or oil, 
dry and scurfy. The wool loses its brilliancy and comes 
out easily when pulled. The muscles waste, the animal 
is razor-backed, the hip-bones project, and the flank becomes 
sunken, the belly pendent and the back drooped from 
dropsical effusion. Similar effusions take place in the 
chest beneath the abdomen and breast-bone and under 
the lower jaw. The head is no longer carried erect, the 
expression of the face is haggard and hopeless, the appe- 
tite capricious, thirst ardent, and there is occasional 
diarrhoea. Examination of the dung detects myriads of 
microscopic eggs y^ inch in diameter. 

Treatment. Almost all the tonics of the pharmacopoeia 
have been employed with more or less effect, but all usu- 
ally fail when many parasites have gained access to the 
19 



290 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

system. The following is a good example of a tonic mixt- 
ure : 

Linseed, rape, pea, oat, barley, or unbolted wheat 
flour, 40 lbs. 

Powdered gentian or anise seed, 4 " 

Common salt, 4 " 

Sulphate or oxide of iron, 1 " 

Give half a pint daily to each sheep. 

In all treatment it is essential to remove from the in- 
fested meadow to a perfectly dry pasture or salt marsh on 
either of which the eggs of the fluke will perish. To turn 
on a wet fresh pasture is merely to stock that with the 
parasites. 

Prevention. Keep sheep on high dry pastures or salt 
marshes where the fluke cannot live out of the body. 
Feed salt daily if flukes exist to however limited an extent ; 
this is fatal to the young flukes and will destroy most of 
them as they are taken in. Thorough drainage of infested 
pastures will make them wholesome. This may fail when 
land is subject to inundations, and in this case such land 
should be devoted to raising hay or other crops. Keeping 
the sheep off the infested fields at nights and until the 
dews leave the grass in the morning will go a long way 
towards protecting them. In some instances of the intro- 
duction of this parasite into a new country the contami- 
nated sheep should be destroyed and the infested pasture 
with a wide area around it proscribed from being grazed. 

For other parasites of the liver, see general article on 
'* Paeasites." 



CHAPTER XI. 
DISEASES OE THE PANCREAS AND SPLEEN. 

Diseases of the pancreas : inflammation, degeneration, calculi, etc. Dis 
eases of the spleen : tuberculous, cancerous, glanderous, inflammatory, con 
gestive, apoplectic. Hypertrophy, Atrophy, Lymphadenoma, Leuksemia. 

DISEASES OF THE PANCREAS. 

Though subject to a variety of diseases as shown by the 
existence of abscess, tuberculosis, sarcoma, melanosis, can- 
cer, calculi and worms (Sclerostomum Equinum) after 
death, this organ is so deeply seated and the result of its 
disorder so little manifest, that its pathological states usu- 
ally pass without recognition during life. One symptom 
only is characteristic— the passage of much undigested fat 
with the dung. The fatty aliment is mainly emulsionized 
by the pancreatic juice, and its presence in the stools un- 
changed may be held to imply suppression of that secre- 
tion. If this condition coincides with general fever, col- 
icky pains, and tenderness behind the last rib on the right 
side, inflammation of the gland may be suspected ; if with 
sharper colic but without fever, obstruction of the pancreatic 
duct by calculi will be suggested. 

Inflammation should be treated on general principles h} 
laxatives, blisters to the right side of the abdomen an. 1 
spare diet ; Calculi by antispasmodics and fomentation s 
as for gall-stones ; and simple suppressed secretion by sul- 
phuric ether. 

DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN (MELT). 

These are if possible even more occult than those of the 



292 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



pancreas. And yet this organ is involved in nearly all 
diseases of tlie liver, in specific fevers due to a poison in 
the blood, and in disorders of the lymphatic vessels. Ob- 
structed circulation through the liver sends the blood 
back on this organ and over-distends it almost to rupture. 

Advanced tuberculosis and cancer rarely fail to show 
secondary deposits here. Glanders sometimes shows the 
same tendency. Anthrax and anthracoid affections and, 
to a less extent, other specific fevers, lead to enlargement 
and even rupture of the spleen, in connection with the 
long retention of the blood and disease poisons in its ve- 
nous cavities. Of particular diseases the spleen suffers 
from wasting in starved animals, from extraordinary in- 
crease in the highly fed, and from changes of structure 
such as alandular degeneration and enlargement (lymphade- 
noma). tjci— of these diseases, and notably the latter, 
are associated with an excess of white globules in the 
blood, (leukaimia) which condition revealed by the micro- 
scope may assist in diagnosis. 

We can do little for these affections besides giving at- 
tention to the general health, by tonics and a sound hy- 
giene. 



CHAPTER XII. 
DISEASES OF THE UEINAET OKGANS. 

General causes and symptoms. Examination of the urine. Diuresis, Di- 
abetis Insipidus, Polyuria. Bloody urine, Hematuria. Simple inflamma- 
tion of the kidneys, Nephritis. Bright's disease, Desquamative Nephritis 
Albuminuria, Albuminous urine. Spasm of the neck of the bladder. Paraly- 
sis of the bladder. Inflammation of the bladder, Cystitis. Inflammation 
of the Urethra, Gonorrhoea, Gleet. Stricture of the Urethra. Eversion of 
the bladder. Urinary Calculi, and gravel, Stone in the kidney, ureter, blad- 
der, urethra and prepuce, — in horses, cattle, sheep, pigs and dogs. 

Diseases of the urinary organs are not infrequent in the 
domestic animals, though less prevalent than in man. 
They prevail above all in certain localities, as : on the 
magnesian limestones, in company with goitre, on lands 
abounding in diuretic or resinous plants or water, in damp 
regions where fodder is secured in a wet, musty condition, 
where it is fed covered with hoar-frost, or where frequent 
cold rains and winds repress the perspiration and throw 
undue work on the kidneys. Feeding to excess on ali- 
ments rich in phosphates of lime and magnesia — bran, 
beans, peas, vetches, etc., — the habitual privation of wa- 
ter, injudicious dosing with diuretics, diseased heart and 
lungs which throws the blood back on the veins and de- 
termines passive congestion of the kidneys, diseases of the 
liver which interfering with the oxidation of albuminoids 
predispose to urinary deposit, and finally mechanical in- 
juries to the loins or pelvis all tend to induce various 
urinary diseas-es. 

General Symptoms. With most acutp inflammations 
there is a stiff straddling gait with th# hind limbs, the 



294 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

loins are tender, as ascertained by pinching on the spine? 
or the transverse processes of the backbone, there is less 
difficulty experienced in backing than when there is sprain 
or fracture of the back or loins, and the animal is mort. 
likely to lie down though it costs an extra effort to rise, 
bhere is straining to discharge urine, which is passed in 
excess, in deficiency, in jets, in dribblets only, or not at all. 
. 'n the larger animals the bladder and its excretory duct 
v urethra) are easily and satisfactorily examined by the 
hand introduced through the rectum or vagina and any 
tenderness, flaccidity, swelling, over-distension or foreign 
agent (stone) is easily made out. In the smaller breeds 
of horses and cattle even, the kidneys may be reached in 
this way and any heat, swelling, tenderness, etc., perceived. 
Then brain disease, dropsies and skin eruptions are com- 
mon results of urinary disorder. 

Examination of the Urine. But a certain class of urin- 
ary diseases are only to be made out by examination of 
the urine. Beside the modifications of quantity and flow 
already referred to, this may be altered : 1st, in color, as 
white from saline deposits, broion or red from blood clots 
and coloring matter, or from imperfectly oxidized albu- 
minoids, yellow or orange from bile or blood pigment, pale 
or variously tinted from vegetable colors taken with the 
food : 2d, in density as measured by a hygrometer (urin- 
ometer), the natural urine being in the horse and ox 1030 
to 1060, pig and goat 1010 to 1012, dog 1020 and cat 1058 : 
3d, in chemical reaction, acidity or alkalinity, as ascertained 
by blue litmus or red test-papers (healthy herbivorous 
urine is alkaline, turning the red papers blue unless after 
prolonged abstinence or a flesh diet ; carnivorous and om- 
nivorous urine is acid excepting when confined to a vege- 
table diet) : 4th, in organic ingredients, as when it contains 
albumen (coagulable by boiling or by strong nitric acid or 
in the horse giving the liquid a ropy consistency), sugar, 
blood, bile, cylindroid microscopic casts of the uriniferous 
tubes or the eggs or bodies of worms : 5th, in its salts. 



Diseases of the Urinary Organs. 295 

which may crystallize out in the system or at once after 
the liquid is discharged, or after cooling, or finally may 
have to be precipitated by chemical reagents. 

DIUKESIS. DIABETES INSIPIDUS. POLYUEIA. 

Excessive secretion of urine. This may occur in any 
animal from agents, medicinal or alimentary, which un- 
duly stimulate the kidneys. The horse, however, is the 
most frequent sufferer, being more than any other animal 
subjected to reckless dosing by those about him with pri- 
vate nostrums and much advertised quack preparations, 
and to the exclusive use of musty and injured hay and 
grain. Musty hay, grain or bran is perhaps the most 
common cause, the noxious agent being probably the 
cryptogams produced on this damp, heated fodder. Musty 
oatmeal will even affect the human being. New oats, 
very watery food like the refuse of distilleries, and cooked 
food, seleniteous waters, acrid diuretic plants in the pas- 
tures or hay, exposure to extreme cold and wet, and ex- 
cessive thirst consequent on feeding salt or on irritation 
of the stomach are other causes. Whole flocks of sheep 
sometimes suffer at once from acrid plants eaten. 

Symptoms. Frequent — often almost constant — passage 
of a very pale-colored urine in large quantities and of low 
specific gravity, insatiable thirst, rapid falling off in con- 
dition and spirits, sluggishness and weakness at work and 
perspiration on the slightest exertion. The discharges 
are comparatively inodorous and more like water than 
horse's urine, and contain little solid matter though the 
quantity of solids passed in twenty-four hours is in excess. 
The skin becomes rough and hide-bound and all the signs 
of ill-health set in, though the animal may suffer and sur- 
vive for months or even a year. More commonly he dies 
early of exhaustion, or glanders supervenes and kills the 
patient. 

Treatment is very successful in the early stages. Stop 
the use of faulty food and drugs and give dry wholesome 



296 The Farmer 's Veterinary Adviser. 

hay and grain with no suspicion of newness or mustiness 
Give a decoction of flaxseed freely with the water drunk, 
with phosphate of iron 2 drachms, Peruvian bark 4 
drachms and iodide of potassium 2 drachms daily. Cre 
osote may often be added with advantage. 

BLOODY UEINE. KEMATUKIA. 

This occurs after sprains of the loins or blows on this 
region, with stone in the kidneys, urinary passages or blad- 
der, cancer, tubercle or even abscess of the kidney, etc., or 
lastly some poisoned condition of the blood, as in malig- 
nant anthrax. Acrid diuretic plants, cantharides, May- 
bugs, etc., are occasional causes. When bleeding occurs 
from local irritation or in a tolerably healthy state of the 
blood it is partly at least in the form of clots and fibrinous 
casts of the uriniferous tubes, about one-hundreth inch in 
diameter, and entangling blood-globules. If from poi- 
soned and disintegrating blood, there is a diffuse colora- 
tion with haematine, with perhaps fragments of blood- 
globules, but rarely perfect ones, clots or casts, and a sim- 
•lar oozing of blood is liable to take place at other parts 
.f the body. The blood-coloring matter is easily distin- 
guished from bile by chemical tests. It is less easily dis- 
tinguished from the brownish-red albuminoids which es- 
cape by the kidneys in Azotaemia. Beside the passage of 
blood there may be the general signs of urinary disorder, 
but these are not constant. When gravel coexists gritty 
masses pass with the urine or collect on the hair of the 
prepuce. 

Treatment. Bemove the causes, give comfortable, dry 
Iwellings, sound food, mucilaginous drinks (linseed tea, 
nallow, gums, elm, etc.,) and acid astringents (tincture of 
chloride of iron, sugar of lead, vinegar, buttermilk and oak 
bark). In profuse discharge cold water may be applied tc 
the loins, while in inflammatory cases a sheep-skin or 
poultice may be first used and followed by a mustard 
plaster. (See Azotemia and Bed-watee). 



Diseases of the Urinary Organs. 297 

NEPHKITTS. SIMPLE INFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS. 

Causes. Blows or sprains in the region of the loins, 
stone in the kidneys, use of diuretics to excess, musty 
fodder, irritant or acrid plants in hay, too extensive blis- 
ters of Spanish flies, paralysis of the spinal cord. 

Symptoms. A variable but often very high fever, heat 
or even swelling of the loins, tenderness often extreme 
beneath the bony processes about six inches from the 
spine, a stiff, straddling gait with the hind limbs, little 
marked in chronic cases but so severe as to amount almost 
to helplessness in the worst, the loins arched, progression 
difficult and attended in some cases by groaning, there is 
looking at the abdomen and colicky pains, more severe at 
one time than another. If the patient lies down it is with 
caution. In males there are alternate retraction and de- 
scent of the testicles, and in all there is likely to be frequent 
passages of urine in small amount, of a very high color and 
density, and containing fibrinous casts of the kidney tubes 
one-hundreth of an inch in diameter, and sometimes blood 
or even pus. The bowels are costive and there is a rapid 
pulse, an elevated temperature and excited breathing. 
The legs tend to swell uniformly from the foot up, and 
swellings may appear under the chest or belly, or even in 
internal cavities. 

General ill-health, with stocking of the legs, casts in the 
urine and some tenderness of the loins to pressure, may 
be all that is seen in the chronic cases. 

Treatment. In acute cases, with strong pulse and ro- 
bust patient, an immediate advantage may be gained by 
bleeding, but this is rare. Give a laxative of olive-oil or 
raTr linseed-oil, or in case of necessity of Glauber salts or 
aloes, accompanying this with an anodyne, (opium, bella- 
donna, tobacco,) throw anodyne and mucilaginous injec- 
tions into the rectum, and cover the loins with a fresh 
sheep-skin, the fleshy side in, or with a soothing poultice or 
fomentations, following this up in six or eight hours by a 
mustard poultice. Mucilaginous drinks may be gnen 



298 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

freely, but diuretics are to be sedulously avoided and 
warm clothing used to favor sweating and thus relieve the 
kidneys of work. Laxatives and anodynes must be ro 
peated as may seem necessary and finally a course of 
bitter tonics may be allowed. 

ALBUMINURIA. BRIGHT' S DISEASE. DESQUAMATIVE NEPHRITIS. 

This consists in inflammation of the kidneys, acute or 
chronic, with degeneration and shedding of the epithe- 
lium from the kidney tubes. 

Symptoms. More or less awkwardness of gait behind, 
and tenderness of the loins, in some cases indisposition to 
lie down, thick, gelatinous, ropy urine, with microscopic 
casts of the kidney tubes, containing much spherical 
epithelium and granular matter. The urine coagulates in 
part in whitish flakes when boiled, or under the action of 
corrosive sublimate, acetate of lead or nitric acid. The 
general health suffers and the patient dies sooner or later 
of uraemia with dropsy, or of some other affection which 
has been aggravated by the impaired vitality and the 
excess of the elements of urine in the blood. 

Treatment is not always satisfactory, though a certain 
proportion recover. Avoid exposure to cold, keep in a 
warm box and warmly clothed. Keep the bowels acting 
freely by a restricted diet of warm bran mashes, etc., or 
even by laxatives. Give tonics (phosphate of iron, quinia, 
willow bark,) and mineral acids and use mustard appli- 
cations to the loins. If the kidneys fail to act, do not 
give diuretics, but use cupping over the part, or hot fo- 
mentations with water, or better still a strong infusion of 
digitalis. 

Albuminous Urine, which is always ropy in horses, is no 
proof of the existence of Bright' s disease, but is an attend- 
ant on nearly all extensive inflammations of important 
organs, on rheumatism, fevers and certain poisoned con- 
ditions of the blood. 



Diseases of the Urinary Organs. 299 



SPASM OF THE NECK OF THE BLADDEK. 

Causes. Prolonged retention of urine in mares at work 
or in horses hard driven. Chill when heated. Nervous 
irritation. Is a common attendant on severe colic and 
gives way when that is relieved. Males suffer most fre- 
quently. 

Symptoms. Frequent attempts to urinate, which prove 
ineffectual or secure a dribbling only after much pain and 
straining. There may be anxious looking at the flank 
and uneasy shifting of the limbs, or in cattle twisting of 
the tail. There is tenderness in the back part of the ab- 
domen in the median line below. The hand, oiled and 
introduced into the rectum, will feel the distended blad- 
der, with its firm dense neck and no enlargement either 
there or backward in the urethra, as from stone. 

If unrelieved the bladder becomes immoderately dis- 
tended and finally bursts, especially in ruminants. This 
is followed by tenderness of the abdomen, febrile symp- 
toms, dullness and languor, and if the bladder is exam- 
ined it is found to be flaccid and tender. Perforation of 
the lower part of the abdomen with the nozzle of a hypo- 
dermic syringe allows the escape of urine, easily recog- 
nized by its odor. 

Treatment. Spreading fresh litter under the horse will 
sometimes induce staling. If not, use antispasmodics in- 
troduced by the rectum or even by the mouth (opium, 
laudanum, belladonna or hyoscyamus extract, tobacco 
smoke or solution, chloral-hydrate, lobelia, prussic acid, 
cyanide of potassium, etc.) Solutions of any of these 
ii grants may be rubbed on the perinseum. Sometimes the 
spasm will give way under gentle pressure on the bladder 
with hand or finger in the rectum. Finally, all other 
measures failing, the urine may be withdrawn with a well- 
oiled catheter. This should be ^ inch in diameter for 
the horse, £ inch for the bull and a line for the dog. Con- 
trary to the usual statement a small catheter may be 
passed in the bull when the penis is sufficiently extended 



300 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

to efface the S-shaped bend of the penis. In the mare 
the spasm may be overcome by the insertion of one or 
two fingers through the opening which is found in the 
median line of the floor of the passage about four inches 
from the external orifice. In the cow care is required to 
enter the central orifice as there is a blind sac on each 
side. 

PARALYSIS OF THE BLADDER 

May occur from excessive over-distension, in connection 
with lock-jaw or rheumatism which prevents stretching to 
stale, with cystitis implicating the muscular coat, spasm 
of the neck of the bladder, or decomposition of the urine. 
It is attendant on disease or injury of the terminal part 
of the spinal cord, on broken back, etc., and is then asso- 
ciated with palsy of the tail and it may be of the hind 
hmbs. 

Symptoms. If the neck is involved the urine dribbles 
away constantly, without straining, is discharged in the 
sheath and runs down inside the thighs causing irritation 
and inflammation in both. If the neck is unaffected the 
urine accumulates in the bladder, causing over-distension, 
irritation and rupture. The urine decomposes, setting 
free ammonia which softens and dissolves the epithelium 
and establishes the worst type of cystitis. 

Treatment. In cases of broken back or disease of the 
spinal cord attention must be given to that and, if reme- 
diable, the urine must be drawn off frequently with a cath- 
eter to prevent over-distension and injury to the bladder. 
In local paralysis, or after the spinal cord has recovered, 
apply a blister (mustard) between the thighs beneath the 
anus or vulva or over the back part of the belly inferiorly. 
Give belladonna extract (1 to 2 drachms), cantharides (1 
to 3 grains) or nux-vomica (^ drachm for large herbivora). 
Use electricity. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE BLADDER. CYSTITIS. 

Causes. Abuse of diuretics, acrid diuretic plants in 



Diseases of the Urinary Organs. 301 

the food, tlie application of blisters (Spanish flies, turpen- 
tine,) over too extensive surfaces, prolonged retention and 
decomposition of urine, irritation from stone in the blad- 
der, etc. 

Symptoms. If confined to the mucous membrane urine 
is passed frequently, painfully, in small quantities, with 
more or less floating mucus and flat, microscopic, fibri- 
nous shreds of exudation entangling columnar or scaly ep- 
ithelium. The bladder is very tender to the touch and 
if the finger is passed into it in the female its neck and 
walls are felt to be thickened, sometimes enormously. 
There are colicky pains, frequent looking at the flanks, un- 
easy movements of the hind feet or twisting of the tail. 
The gait is stiff and straddling. There is fever, usually 
slight. If the muscular coat is involved there is disten- 
sion of the bladder, and if the neck participates the urine 
escapes involuntarily. If due to unrelieved stone that will 
be found on examination. 

The case is most hopeful if due to irritants or some clearlj 
removable cause. 

Treatment. Remove the cause, whether food, drugs, 
blistering agents on the skin, stone, gravel or retained and 
decomposed urine. Give spare, soft, aqueous diet with 
mucilaginous agents (linseed decoction or tea, slippery 
elm, gums, etc.,) laxatives of olive or linseed-oil, soft pure 
water at will, and mucilaginous and anodyne injections 
into the bladder (gum Arabic 1 drachm, opium 1 drachm, 
tepid water 1 pint). Blisters may be used in paralysis. 
In severe cases these may be preceded by fomentations. 
Finally, when the acute symptoms have subsided, small 
doses of stimulating diuretics (copaiva, cubebs, juniper, 
buchu,) will often serve to tone up the mucous membrane. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE URETHRA. GONORRHOEA. GLEET. 

Causes. Like cystitis this may depend on irritants in 
the urine, taken by the mouth or applied to the surface, 
excessive copulation, connection with a newly-delivered 



302 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser 

female or one that has otherwise contracted a vaginal dis- 
charge, mechanical injury to the penis in serving females, 
irritation from the passage or arrest of small stones or 
gravel. 

Symptoms. Swelling and soreness in the sheath and 
penis, pain in urinating, the liquid coming in jets and fre- 
quently arrested because of the suffering. In dogs there 
is continual licking of the organ and soon a creamy pus 
drops from the orifice. 

Treatment. If before the discharge of pus, give a laxa- 
tive and foment the parts with warm water. "Wash out 
any gravel. If after suppuration, use soothing or astrin- 
gent injections (permanganate of potassa, acetate of lead, 
sulphate of zinc or nitrate of silver, 2 grains to 1 oz. water). 
Tonics and stimulating diuretics may be finally needed as 
in cystitis. A soft restricted diet is demanded. 

STRICTURE OF THE URETHRA. 

Usually a result of local irritation : — gravel, strong as- 
tringent injections used in the early stage of gonorrhoea or 
the healing of ulcers formed when that disease is neg- 
lected. 

Symptoms. Great difficulty in urination, the liquid es- 
caping in a fine stream and with pain. Frequent painful 
erections. 

Treatment. Passing, daily, catheters of gradually in- 
creasing sizes, beginning with one just large enough to 
enter with gentle force. 

EVERSION OF THE BLADDER 

Can occur only in the female, from severe straining in 
irritation of the urinary organs, and especially after the 
organ has been rendered torpid or paralyzed by over-dis- 
tension, severe parturition or otherwise. The animal 
strains violently and a red, tumid, rounded mass appears 
from between the lips of the vulva. On examining its 
surface near the neck the two orifices of the ureters may 
be detected with the urine oozing from them in drops. 



Diseases of the Urinary Organs. 303 

Treatment. Wash with milk-warm water containing 
laudanum, and return, pressing the centre of the mass in- 
ward so as to correct the eversion. The main difficulty 
will be met in returning it through the contracted neck of 
the bladder, and if the eversion has lasted long enough to 
determine inflammation and softening great care will be 
requisite to avoid tearing the coats. Should straining be 
so violent as to threaten renewal of the eversion a truss 
may be applied as advised for eversion of the womb. 

URINARY CALCULI AND GRAVEL. STONE. 

These vary in chemical composition with the genus of 
animal and especially with the nature of the food. In 
herbivora the urine normally contains a large amount of 
the carbonates of lime and magnesia and of oxalate of lime, 
a small quantity of silica, sulphate and phosphate of lime, 
ammonio-magnesian phosphate, hippuric acid and some- 
times uric acid, besides the more soluble alkaline salts. 
Carnivora, on the other hand, have an excess of phosphate 
of lime and magnesia, of sulphates and chlorides, more 
uric acid than the vegetable feeders but a minimum amount 
of carbonate and oxalate of lime and silica. The omnivora 
occupy an intermediate position, the salts of the urine va- 
rying with the frequent changes in the food. 

The nature of the food determines the excess of particular 
salts in the urine and their precipitation in the form of 
crystals. 

These carbonates of lime and magnesia which make up 
the bulk of most urinary calculi in horses and ruminants 
are due to the large amount of vegetable acids (citrates, 
tartrates, malates, acetates, etc.,) in plants. These becom- 
ing further oxidized are transformed into carbonic acid 
which unites with the magnesia or lime present in the 
blood. 

Oxalate of lime is due to imperfect oxidation of the veg- 
etable acids, oxalic acid containing an equivalent less of 
oxygen than carbonic acid. It appears in excess in cer- 



304 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

tain diseases of the lungs or other conditions which inter- 
fere with respiration. 

Silica enters the system as silicate of potassa in food 
and water and especially in cyperacesea, horsetails, oat < 
straw, oat-meal, etc. It is displaced as silica whenever it 
comes in contact with a stronger acid. 

Phosphates enter the system in bran, in beans, peas, 
and the leguminous seeds generally, in oil-cake and rape- 
cake, or (the carnivora) in the flesh and bones. When 
present in undue amount in a given quantity of urine they 
tend to crystallize out, but when a large amount of phos- 
phate of magnesia is present, it is only necessary that the 
urine should be retained longer than usual in the bladder 
and that decomposition should set in with evolution of am- 
monia, to have the insoluble ammonia-magnesian phos- 
phate at once thrown down. 

Sulphate of lime is derived from sulphates in the water 
or the oxidation of sulphur contained in the albuminoid 
principles of food. 

Urea, Uric Acid, Hippuric Acid, Creatine, Creatinine, 
Kiestine, Leucin, Ty rosin, etc., are all nitrogenous elements, 
derived from the waste of muscle and gelatinous tissues, 
or from albuminoid matters in the food. Urea is to be 
looked on as the healthy product of such decomposition, 
while uric and hippuric acids, etc., are products in which 
the process of oxidation has stopped short, leaving the 
products in a less soluble condition and more liable to 
crystallize out of the urine. Impaired breathing from dis- 
eased lungs or otherwise and imperfect action of the liver, 
whether from local disease in that organ or from feverish 
states, with impaired functions generally, are therefore 
among the causes which strongly predispose to urinary 
calculi. 

Beside these a certain amount of mucus, fat, coloring 
matter and even blood enter into the formation of urinary 
calculi. 

Accessory Causes. To the above named causes favoring 



Diseases of the Urinary Organs. 305 

the formation of urinary calculi, may be added all such as 
favor concentration of the urine. Thus scarcity of drink- 
ing water, excessive loss of liquid by the bowels or skin, 
(diarrhoea, dysentery, etc.,) dry winter feeding on hay and 
grain, feverish states in which little urine is secreted, and 
hard waters appear to have this effect. The last named 
cause is not generally credited by physicians but its coin- 
cidence with the prevalence of stone is exceedingly com- 
mon. 

Mode of Formation. The first requisite is that some 
solid body should exist as a nucleus around which layer 
after layer is crystallized, and hence the stone is always 
composed of a series of concentric layers. The nucleus 
may consist in a particle of mucus, fibrine or blood, a 
crystal deposited from over-saturated urine, or even a for- 
eign body introduced from without. I have seen a large 
calculus in the kidney of a deer formed around a piece of 
wood which must have penetrated the kidney and broken 
off, while the wound by which it entered had healed up. 

Appearance. Calculi vary much in character but the 
most marked varieties are the smooth stones formed by 
carbonates, oxalates, phosphates and silica, and the 
rough jagged crystalline specimens of ammonio-magnesian 
phosphates. 

Renal Calculi. Those found in the kidney are usually 
moulded in the pelvis, though I have found many like 
small lentils in dilatations of the microscopic tubes in the 
substance of the gland. Cattle fed on dry hay and grain, 
during winter, rarely want small yellow crystalline masses 
in the pelvis. Even when so large as to distend the pel- 
vis and weigh several ounces they are not always incom- 
patible with good health and aptitude to fatten. When 
so large or rough as to produce manifest disorder, this 
appears as irritation of the kidneys, tender loins, stifl 
straddling gait, etc., with the passage of microscopic crys- 
tals, and perhaps blood or pus in the urine. In cattle and 
sheep the salts from the concentrated urine usually crys- 

20 



30G The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

tallize out on the hairs around the opening of the sheath. 
All species of domestic quadrupeds suffer. 

There is no satisfactory treatment and the great object 
is to prevent their formation by the measures named 
below, 

Urecral Calculi. These are lodged in the small canals 
which convey the urine from the kidneys to the bladder. 
They are usually formed in the pelvis of the kidney and 
being washed on with the urine are arrested in the ureter. 
The symptoms are more violent than those of renal cal- 
culi, since the flow of the urine is checked and the ureter 
and pelvis of the kidney are over-distended, while the kid- 
ney itself undergoes inflammation and, if the animal sur- 
vives, is finally removed by absorption, the opposite kid- 
ney meanwhile enlarging and doing the work of two. The 
colics and general symptoms are like those of nephritis. 
The elastic distended ureter may sometimes be felt with 
the oiled hand introduced through the rectum. Like re- 
nal calculus this is usually irremediable. Antispasmodics 
will sometimes succeed by relaxing the duct and allowing 
the accumulated urine to pass the obstruction onward. 
They are best given by injection into the bowel. If ne- 
phritis sets in the treatment must correspond. 

Cystic Calculus. Stone in the Bladder. Seen in all do- 
mestic animals. 

Symptoms. Frequent straining to pass urine, which 
escapes in dribblets, in jets checked by a sudden arrest, 
or not at all. Blood in clots, and microscopic crystals 
or calculi usually pass with the urine. Examination with 
the oiled hand in the rectum will detect the rounded mass 
in the bladder, especially if it is partially filled with water. 
In the female it may be struck by a smooth metallic 
sound, or even touched with the finger. 

Treatment. By breaking the stone into small pieces 
which may pass with the urine (lithotrity), or by extrac- 
tion whole after dilatation or cutting of the passages (lith- 
otomy). Lithotrity is effected with the lithotrite of the 



Diseases of the Urinary Organs. 307 

Burgeon and is only applicable to the female quadruped; 
in which extraction is usually easy and safe. A pair of 
long, round-bladed tongs like a glove-stretcher may be 
used to slowly dilate the neck of the bladder, after which 
the warmed and oiled forceps, the blades of which should 
be broad enough to cover the stone, are introduced and the 
stone being seized is slowly withdrawn by gentle oscillating 
movements. The injection of a little warm water into an 
empty bladder will greatly facilitate the seizure of the 
stone. The male is operated on standing or thrown on 
his right side. A catheter is passed up the urethra to the 
point where it bends forward over the hip bones and an 
incision about two inches long made down upon this in 
the median line. If the stone is small the forceps may 
now be introduced and the calculus withdrawn as in the 
female. If too large for this the passage must be dilated 
with a probe-pointed knife, guided by a grooved director 
or the index finger, the incision being carried obliquely 
between the point of the hip-bone and the anus. The 
stone once removed the opening may be stitched up and 
treated like any ordinary wound. In the ox a catheter 
should be passed as a guide in cutting, as the thickness of 
the erectile tissue over the arch of the hip bone and the 
small size of the urethra render the operation far more 
difficult than in the horse. (For further particulars see 
the author's larger work). 

Urethral Calculi. Stone in the canal by which urine is 
discharged from the bladder. In horses these are found 
in the terminal end of the urethra and its papillae on the 
glans penis. In the bull and ox in the S-shaped bend of 
the penis just above the scrotum, and in the ram in the 
same situation or, more frequently, in the vermiform ap- 
pendix at the point of the penis. In horses the straining 
is violent and constant, in cattle and sheep it is little 
marked, but the tail is slightly raised and the accelerator 
urinse muscle is seen contracting just beneath the anus as 
in ordinary urination. Examination along the course ol 



308 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

the urethra will detect one or more hard nodular enlarge- 
ments at the S-shaped curve or elsewhere. If more than 
one are present, they may be made to grate on each other. 
Treatment If in the papilla or vermiform appendix, 
try to extract by manipulation. Should this fail, slit open 
the duct, or in the ram cut off the appendix. If higher 
up it must be cut down upon, through the skin, and ex- 
tracted. In cattle it is desirable to first pull the penis 
backward or forward so that the incision may clear the 
scrotum with its excess of areolar tissue and fat. 

PEEPUTIAL CALCULI. STONES IN THE PREPUCE OR SHEATH. 

In oxen and sheep urinary salts often crystallize out on 
the hairs and may even block the passage somewhat. They 
are easily removed by manipulation or with scissors. The 
accumulations of sebaceous matter, in the bilocular cavity 
on the end of the penis or in the sheath of the horse, some- 
times receive this name. They are best removed by 
thorough washing with soap and warm water, and the 
parts may then be lubricated with sweet-oil. 

SAND-LIKE DEPOSIT OR SOFT MAGMA LN THE BLADDER. 

This is frequent in the horse, the spherical granules of 
carbonate of lime and magnesia remaining apart instead 
of becoming agglutinated into a stone. Its mildest form 
is shown in the passage of a white matter at the comple- 
tion of the act of urination. When accumulated so as to 
fill half of the bladder or more, this comes away in large 
amount and is found within the sheath and on the inner 
.sides of the thighs, for the urine escapes involuntarily and 
sontinuously. 

Treatment. "Wash out the bladder by pumping water 
through a catheter by means of Heed's stomach pump or 
a syringe, then shake it up with the hand introduced 
through the rectum and allow the muddy liquid to flow 
out through the catheter. Repeat this until the bladder is 
emptied and the water comes away clear. 



Diseases of the Urinary Organs. 309 



Prevention. The next point is to prevent its forming 
anew by measures calculated to obviate urinary calculi in 
general. Correct any fault in feeding — excess of beans, 
peas, bran, etc., — and any disorder in the liver functions. 
Give abundance of soft water, encouraging its ingestion by 
a fair supply of salt, let the food be aqueous, consisting 
largely of roots, especially carrots, and give daily in the 
drinking water 1 dr. caustic soda or potassa, or common 
ashes froin hard wood. A course of bitters should also be 
given (cascarilla, columba, willow bark, gentian, quassia, 
or others). 



CHAPTER XIII. 
DISEASES OF THE OBGANS OF GENEKATION. 

General causes. Inflammation of the testicle. Dropsy of the scrotum, 
Hydrocele. Water stones. Tumors of the sheath. Disease of the penis. 
Ulcers of the penis. Castration of males. Evil results of castration. 
Strangulated cord. Swelling of the sheath. Phymosis. Paraphymosis. 
Tumor on the spermatic cord. Castration of females. Castration of male 
birds. Abortion. Difficult parturition. Premature labor pains. Induration 
of the neck of the womb. Twisting of the neck of the womb. Polypus in 
the vagina. Wrong presentations, deformities, etc. Maxims for assisting in 
difficult parturition. Anterior presentation with head or fore limb turned 
back. Posterior presentation with one or both hind limbs turned back. 
With water in the head or abdomen. Disorders following parturition. 
Flooding. Retained afterbirth. Leucorrhoea, catarrh of the womb or va- 
gina. Eversion of the womb or vagina. Inflammation of the womb, Metri- 
tis. Parturition fever, milk fever, parturient apoplexy. 

Are mostly confined to breeding and dairying districts. 
They are largely obviated by castration and the virgin 
condition. Amongst the principal causes may be men- 
tioned mechanical injuries, excitement and irritation ac- 
companying coition, gestation, parturition, over-officious 
or ill-directed assistance in delivery, a very rich or poor 
diet, tuberculosis, poisons, (ergot, savin, rue, cantharides, 
etc.,) sympathetic irritation from excessive milking, from 
disease or injury of the mammary glands, of the urinary 
organs or of the rectum. 

INPLAMMATION OP THE TESTICLE. 

Occurs mainly from external injury, though it may be 
roused by excessive copulation, or by glanderous deposit 
or other diseased process in the organ. The animal moves 



Diseases of the Organs of Generation. 311 

stiffly and with a straddling gait, and the testicle is en- 
larged, tender and frequently drawn up and dropped down 
again. It is to be treated with a dose of purgative medi- 
cine, restricted soft diet, fomentations with warm water, 
and smearing of the bag in the intervals with extract of 
belladonna, laudanum or some other anodyne. Should 
fluctuation announce the formation of pus, make an open- 
ing with a sharp knife to evacuate it, while if destruction 
of the gland is threatened castration must be performed. 

HYDROCELE. DROPSY OF THE SCROTUM. 

Usually associated with water in the abdomen. Distin- 
guished from scrotal hernia by not passing back with a 
sudden movement but with a steady current and gradual 
diminution. The same treatment is needed as in ascites. 

WATER STONES. 

In geldings a considerable accumulation of water often 
takes place in multilocular cavities connected with the 
still pervious inguinal canal, which may be emptied by 
compression, the water returning to the abdomen with a 
continued thrill. They often disappear in winter to reap- 
pear the following summer. Though not injurious they 
may be removed by cutting down on the cavities and 
dissecting out the sacs. 

TUMORS OF THE SHEATH. 

These are easily removed by twisting them off. Some, 
however, bleed freely and these should have a stout waxed 
twine tied firmly round their necks and be then twister! 
or allowed to drop off. If bleeding occurs after removal 
seize the bleeding orifice with forceps and tie with a waxed 
thread. 

DISEASE OF THE PENIS. 

Small warty growths may be cut off with scissors or 
knife and the part cauterized with lunar caustic. The 



312 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

soft condylomatous growths which occur in dogs may be 
treated in the same way. But when the large cauliflower- 
like masses are associated with hardening of the whole 
end of the organ, it must be amputated behind the indu- 
rated portion. The subject should be prepared by laxa- 
tive diet, and, having been thrown, the yard is withdrawn, 
washed, and cut through gradually, beginning at its upper 
part and tying the arteries as they are reached. On 
reaching the urethra at the lower part of the yard it is to 
be dissected out, and cut across so as to leave it f of an 
inch longer than the rest. Considerable bleeding from 
the venous cavities may come on a few hours later, and 
especially in hot weather, but may be easily controlled by 
dashing cold water between the thighs or stuffing the 
sheath with tow saturated with tincture of matico or muri- 
ate of iron. 

ULCERS OF THE PENIS. 

These may arise from accumulation of sebaceous matter 
but more frequently from the irritant discharges in a 
female recently delivered or suffering from leucorrhoea. 
They may be treated with a lotion such as the following : 
— sugar of lead, 1 dr. ; carbolic acid, 60 drops ; chloral- 
hydrate, 1 dr. ; water, 1 pint. 

CASTRATION OF MALES. 

Numerous modes of castrating the male are followed, 
but in all the essential points are the removal or destruc- 
tion of the testicles and the prevention of bleeding from 
the spermatic artery which is always found in the ante- 
rior portion of the cord. In small animals (pigs, lambs, 
calves, dogs, cats,) the testicle is seized so as to render 
the skin tense, and a free incision with knife parallel to 
the median line sets it free at once. The knife is now 
passed between the middle and posterior parts of the cord 
and the latter cut through. The anterior portion is then 
twisted and finally torn through, the upper part being 



Diseases of the Organs of Generation 313 

held by the finger and thumb of one hand while traction 
is made by the other. In the colt and old horses and 
bulls the structures are so tough that the cord must 
be seized by two pairs of pincers in order to accomplish 
satisfactoiy twisting. 

Clamps (sticks) are very generally employed hi horses, 
the important considerations being that the wood shall be 
tough and unyielding, that they shall be grooved to give 
greater security of hold, that they shall be tied together 
with well twined inelastic cords, and that when applied 
they shall be squeezed together with pinceis, while the 
end is being tied, that the included tissues may have their 
vitality destroyed. 

The other methods of tying, searing and scraping the 
artery, etc., cannot be described here, though one plan 
will succeed as well as another if properly done. For 
these and castration of cryptorchids (originals, rigs,) bee 
larger work. 

EVIL EESULTS OP CASTEATION. 

Steangulated Coed. "When the cord is left unduly 
long and the wound in the skin small, it may be strangled 
by the swelling and contraction, giving rise to intense 
suffering and high fever. The beast walks with a stiff 
gait, and the end of the cord is felt red and tense, protrud- 
ing from the wound which grasps it tightly. All that is 
necessary is to enlarge the orifice with a knife and push 
up the cord to give permanent relief. 

Swelling oe the Sheath may occur, and especially in 
the young, from unhealthy states of the system, or from 
premature closure of the wound and imprisonment of mat- 
ter. In all such cases reopen the wound with the fingers 
and apply fresh lard to prevent a second adhesion. It is 
a good plan to apply lard to the wounds in castrating to 
obviate adhesion. Next foment the parts continually with 
warm water to hasten the formation of matter. When a 



314 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



free cream-like discharge is established the swelling wil] 
rapidly subside. 

Phimosis and Paraphimosis. In such cases the penis 
may be imprisoned within the sheath or protruded and 
swollen so that it cannot be withdrawn. It may be nec- 
essary to incise the sheath or scarify the penis and ap- 
ply cold water and other astringents, with manipulation to 
return the protruded organ. 

Tumors on the Spermatic Cord. This results from 
rough handling in castrating, from strangulation, or from 
inflammation consequent on the presence of irritants in the 
wound or exposure to cold. It may grow for years with- 
out disabling the animal ; its growth may cease, leaving an 
inconsiderable thickening on the cord ; it may acquire the 
size of a large udder of a cow, and contract numerous 
vascular adhesions to surrounding parts ; or it may extend 
up through the inguinal canal into the abdomen, as felt 
on examination through the rectum. 

Treatment. Those confined to the end ol tne cord may 
be removed like the testicle in castration. Those that 
have contracted adhesions to the thigh and sheath may 
still be removed with care, each vessel being tied as it is 
reached. But when the adhesions are very extensive and 
the tumor very large it is almost impossible to do this, 
and in the case of extension of the disease into the abdo- 
men nothing can be done beyond partial destruction of the 
mass with caustics. 

CASTRATION OF FEMALES. 

In small animals this is done through the flank ; in large, 
more conveniently through the vagina. The animal is 
stretched on its left side, the fore limbs and head being 
firmly secured and the hind limbs extended backwards. 
The hair is shaved from the flank a little below the angle 
of the hip-bone, and an incision made from above down, 
extending to an inch in the pig or bitch, or sufficient to in- 
troduce the hand in the heifer. Then with the finger or 



Diseases of the Organs of Generation. 315 

hand, as the case may be, the womb is sought, backward 
at the entrance of the pelvis in the interval between the 
bladder and the straight gut. Being found, one horn o) 
division is drawn up through the wound until its end is 
exposed with the round mass of the ovary adjacent. The lat- 
ter is seized and cut or twisted off according to the size of 
the animal. Then the next horn and ovary are brought 
out and treated in the same way. The womb is now re- 
turned into the abdomen, and the skin accurately sewed 
up. Evil results are rare, though peritonitis may ensue 
from rough handling or exposure, and abscess or calcifica- 
tion of the wound is not unknown. 

Cows are castrated by making an incision through the 
superior wall of the vagina just above the neck of the 
womb, and inserting two fingers, by which the ovaries are 
withdrawn and twisted off with a torsion instrument. 
Space will not allow of a fuliei description in this work. 

CASTRATION OF MALE BIRDS. 

The bird is placed on its back with the left leg pressed 
against the abdomen and the right one stretched back- 
wards and outward, an incision is made inside this thigh 
large enough to admit the finger, which is directed toward 
the back at the point of union of the last ribs with the 
backbone. There the testicles are felt in contact with 
each other and are separately detached with the nail and 
extracted through the wound. If lost in the abdomen 
after detachment there is no matter, they will adhere to 
the peritoneum and become absorbed. Lastly the wound 
in the. skin is carefully sewed up with a fine thread. 

ABORTION. 

This consists of the expulsion of the fcetus before it can 
live out of the womb, but in the lower animals the term 
has been indiscriminately used for cases of premature 
parturition as well. 

G wes. Blows or pressure on the abdomen, slips, falls. 



316 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

riding of animals in heat, diseases of the abdominal organs, 
(tympanitis from wet, frosted or musty fodder, inflamma- 
tion of the bowels, diarrhoea, poisoning by irritants taken 
with the food or otherwise, renal calculi or other diseasea 
of the kidneys or bladder,) stalls too much inclined back- 
ward, overfeeding, plethora, hot, damp, relaxing stables, 
severe muscular exertion after long rest, exhausting feed- 
ing for milk at the expense of the system, breeding at too 
early an age, proximity to or contact with slaughter-houses 
or dead and decomposing animal matter, especially the 
abortion discharges of other animals, drinking putrid 
or iced water, disease, deformity or death of the foetus, 
feeding on ergoted grasses or smutty wheat or corn, and, 
finally, the presence in the passages of a microscopic veg- 
etable parasite (leptothrix vaginalis) which is easily trans- 
ferred from one animal to another so as to procure abor- 
tion. 

Symptoms. In the early stages of gestation abortion 
often takes place without any warning and is only ascer- 
tained by the animal again coming in heat. Later the 
preliminary signs and progress may be those of an ordi- 
nary parturition, or in other cases a whitish muco-purulent 
discharge may take place from the vulva for some time 
before abortion occurs. A filling of the udder and a loose, 
flaccid condition of the external generative organs often 
furnish premonitions. 

Prevention. Treatment. Avoid the various causes above 
named when found to exist. Especially should attention 
be given to secure a diet and regimen which shall obviate in- 
digestion, to eradicate from the hay-fields all irritant plants, 
to feed a certain amount of roots in winter to obviate urin- 
nary calculi, to cut meadows subject to ergot before they 
run to seed, or better still to plow them up and put under 
a rotation of other crops, to feed roots with ergoted hay or 
smutty corn if these must be consumed, to let the system 
be somewhat developed before breeding and not to milk 
too heavily the first year, to give pure air and water 



Diseases of the Organs of Generation. 317 

and wholesome buildings, and, finally, to use anti-septics 
on the discharges and to keep all sound animals apart 
from the diseased or their products. A beast abort- 
ing, from whatever cause, should be allowed to run over 
several periods of heat before she is served again. When 
abortions have broken out in a herd good results have fol- 
lowed a course of chlorate of potassa in |- oz. doses daily. 
When the beasts are plethoric benefit has been derived 
from bleeding or a bare diet with occasional mild laxatives. 
When run down by poor feeding or by early breeding and 
feeding for milk, a course of tonics (phosphate of soda, 
sulphate of iron, gentian and ginger,) has proved beneficial. 
When the discharge and other premonitory symptoms ap- 
pear laudanum may be given in large and repeated doses 
to quiet the system and keep the tendency in check. 
Quiet and seclusion are no less essential. When the 
abortion becomes inevitable it must be allowed to proceed 
or assistance given if necessary as in parturition. 

DIFFICULT PAETUEITION. 

Parturition is easy in most of the lower animals, the 
wedge-like outline of the foetus when normally presented 
with the long head extended between the fore limbs ren- 
dering it an affair of mechanical simplicity. The same is 
true of the presentation of the two hind feet. If left to 
nature the passages are prepared by the relaxation of the 
ligaments of the pelvis and falling in on each side of the 
croup ; they are then gently and equably dilated by the 
advancing soft and elastic water-bags ; and then if the 
back of the foetus is turned toward the back of the mother 
so that the curvature of its body may correspond to that 
of the pelvis, the process is rarely difficult or protracted. 

Danger arises mainly from parturition being precipi- 
tated before its natural period, from unnatural conditions 
of the passages, from distortions of the foetus or from turn- 
ing back of one or more members so as to impair the reg^ 
ularity of the wedge and to increase the bulk posteriorly. 



318 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

PREMATURE LABOR-PAINS. 

Caused by excitement of travel, goring or riding by their 
fellows, blows and other mechanical injuries, violent pur- 
gation or. diuresis, diseases of the digestive or urinaiy or- 
gans or womb, ergoted grasses, etc. If there is no relax- 
ation of the pelvic ligaments and falling in at the side oi 
the rump, no enlargement of the vulva, no dilatation of the 
neck of the womb nor any enlargement of the bag, place 
in a secluded place and keep quiet by repeated doses of 
opium. The pains will usually subside. Even if other- 
wise apparently prepared the closed neck of the womb 
will demand similar rest and anodynes, though a little 
solid extract of belladonna may in this case be smeared 
round the neck of *the womb to favor relaxation. 

Induration oe the neck of the womb is often errone- 
ously supposed to exist in these cases, but such a conclu- 
sion need not be reached until the quieting treatment has 
been followed for one or two days without success and the 
neck of the womb remains rigid, nodular and gristly. 
Being fully convinced that the closure is due to disease it 
may be dilated by passing in a narrow-bladed, blunt- 
pointed (probe-pointed) knife and cutting to the depth of a 
quarter of an inch in four directions, upward, downward, 
to the right and left. Then the hand may be introduced 
with fingers and thumb drawn into the form of a cone and 
the passage gradually dilated. Or the sponge tents used 
by the physician may be employed. 

Twisting of the neck of the womb so that the lower 
surface of the organ comes to look upwards or to one side, 
is a curious form of obstruction hitherto only seen in the 
cow. It may be surmised when labor-pains continue 
without any appearance of water-bags, and conclusive evi- 
dence is furnished by the neck of the womb being closed 
and thrown into spiral folds. Place the patient with its 
head uphill to relax the twisted neck and introducing 
the hand into the womb, seize the foetus and press it 
against the uterine walls, while one or two men roll the 



Diseases of the Organs of Generation. 319 



cow on its other side in the same direction in which the 
twist has taken place. If the womb is not distended by 
decomposition of a dead foetus, nor attached to adjacent 
parts by inflammatory exudations the untwisting is easily 
effected, though several successive attempts may be requisite 
to secure it. Suddenly constriction around the wrist gives 
way, the water-bags enter the passage and delivery is easy. 

Polypus est the Vagina. A tumor growing from the 
walls of this passage is another obstacle to parturition. By 
examination its point of attachment is found, and it should 
be slowly twisted off or, better still, removed by an ecraseur, 
an instrument with a pitch-chain which is gradually tight- 
ened so as to cut through the parts without loss of blood. 

Dropsy of Womb or Abdomen, and Overdistended 
Bladder are further obstacles. 

WRONG PEESENTATIONS, DEFORMITIES, ETC. 

Maxims for Assisting en Difficult Parturition. Never 
interfere too soon. Let the water-bags burst spontaneously 
when they have fulfilled their purpose of dilating the pas- 
sages. If there is no mechanical obstacle, let the foetus 
be expelled by the unaided efforts of the mother. Never 
insert the arm for any purpose without first smearing it with 
oil or fresh lard. "When the water-bags have ruptured 
and the pains have continued for some time without any 
presentation, examine. When one fore foot only and the 
head, or both fore feet without the head, or the head with- 
out the feet, or one hind foot without the other appears, 
examine. Whatever part is presented should be secured 
by a cord, with a running noose, before it is pushed back 
to search for the others. In searching for a missing 
member the dam should be placed with her head down 
hill and if recumbent should be laid on the side opposite 
to that on which the limb is missing. Even if the missing 
member is reached do not attempt to bring it up during a 
pain. Yiolent straining may be checked by pinching the 
back. If the passages have lost their natural lubricating 



.20 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



mucus, smear them and the body of the foetus thickly with 
lard before attempting to extract. In dragging upon the 
foetus apply force only when the mother strains, and pull 
slightly down toward the hocks as well as backward. If 
under the necessity of cutting off a limb, first skin it from 
near the foot and leave the skin attached to the trunk. 
Never cut off a member in the middle, but in the case of 
fore limb bring away the shoulder-blade, or in the hind 
the thigh-bone. 

Head ob fore limb turned back. Secure the presenting 
limbs with ropes having a running noose drawn tightly 
round bhe fetlock, or the head with a noose round the lower 
jaw, or still better round the neck behind the ears, then 
pushing them back secure the missing part and bring it into 
position. In searching for the missing parts it is well to 
follow those already presented. The left arm will usually 
answer best for a limb at the left side of the Womb, and 
the right arm for the right. Reaching the shoulder, the 
hand may be slid down to beneath the elbow and that 
joint bent so as to bring the knee up ; then the hand is 
slipped past the knee to the shank and by a similar move- 
ment, pushing back the upper part of the limb and pull- 
ing forward the lower, the foot is brought up and secured 
with a noose. All are then brought forward and delivery 
is easy. In order to bring up the missing part it is often 
needful that an assistant shall push back the body of the 
foetus after the limb has been seized. The assistant may 
stand with his back to that of the operator and introduce 
his left arm along by the operator's right or vice versa. 
Or a smooth round pole like a fork-handle may be intro- 
duced and planted in the breast of the foetus as a means 
of pushing it back. In either case the pressure should be 
slightly upward toward the back of the foetus so as tc 
bring up the breast and fore limb toward the passage. 
The missing head may be turned back on either side, 
downward upon the breast or upward upon the back. 
First ascertain its position, then if it cannot be reached by 



Diseases of the Organs of Generation. 321 

pulling the limbs forward into the passage, push back the 
body in such a way as will favor the advance of the head. 
If the ear is reached the head may be pulled by it, till the 
socket of the eye can be gained, and the body being still 
pushed back the nose can soon be seized and brought up. 
Often it is necessary to insert a hook into the eye socket 
or between the branches of the lower jaw, so that more 
force may be exerted. The ring in this case should be 
turned at right angles to the hook, and a cord passed from 
the hook side of the ring, to the opposite, and then knot- 
ted so that the greater the force applied the firmer it will 
hold. 

Presentation of one hind limb alone is recognized by 
examining it as far up as the hock, which cannot possibly 
be mistaken for the knee. The same principles are ap- 
plied here. Noose the presenting limb, and pushing back 
upon it and the buttocks, bring up first the hock and then 
the foot, bending all the joints to their utmost. In the 
cow success can usually be counted on, but the long hind 
shanks of the foal often prove an insuperable obstacle, and 
it becomes needful to cut the hamstrings and, leaving the 
hock bent, to straighten out the limb above this and 
extract in this position. 

Presentation of the buttocks is to be recognized by 
the rounded mass, with the tail and beneath it the anus 
and perhaps the vulva. The process of extraction does 
not differ from that last described, but in very powerful 
mares the pains may be so violent and constant that it is 
impossible to bring up even the hocks, and the limbs have 
to be separated at the hip-joint and extracted separately, 
after which the trunk will come easily. 

Double heads and bodies and superfluous limbs have 
to be removed on the same general principles, but space 
forbids their further notice here. 

Water in the head is often an insuperable barrier tc 
delivery, to be easily recognized by manual examination 
21 



322 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

and as readily relieved by plunging a knife through the 
membranes and evacuating the liquid. 

"Watee in the abdomen is equally frequent and to be 
obviated in a similar manner. 

DISORDERS FOLLOWING PARTURITION. 

Flooding. Bleeding from the walls of the womb. 
Mostly after a too hasty parturition in which the uterine 
walls are exhausted and fail to contract ; or when the 
womb has suffered violence in extraction of the foetus. 

Symptoms. Bloodless pallor of the mucous membranes, 
coldness of the surface, weakness, weak pulse, with or 
without palpitation of the heart and discharge of blood 
from the vulva. The hand introduced into the womb 
finds that organ soft, flaccid, dilated and filled with liquid 
or clotted blood. 

Treatment. Apply cold water or bags of ice to the loins 
and external genital organs, remove the afterbirth and 
clots with the hand and, if necessary, inject cold water, 
acids (vinegar, dilute mineral acids,) astringents (sugar of 
lead, tannin, matico, alum,) into the womb, and give small 
doses of acetate of lead or ergot of rye by the mouth. In 
desperate cases a large sponge soaked in tincture of the 
muriate of iron may be introduced into the womb and 
emptied by squeezing. If the patient is sinking it may 
often be saved by transfusion of blood from another 
animal. 

Retained Afterbirth. Causes. Premature parturition, 
poverty of condition, too hurried delivery and failure to 
establish subsequent contractions, adhesions, the result of 
pre-existing inflammation in the womb, etc. 

If not removed it rots away piecemeal, a portion remain- 
ing and putrefying in the womb, causing irritation, dis- 
charge, rapid loss of condition and milk and in some cases 
absorption of putrid matter and poisoning. 

Treatment. Yarious methods are followed. 1. Attach 
a pound weight to the mass, so that the constant tugging 



Diseases of the Organs of Generation. 323 

may stimulate the womb to contraction and expulsion oi 
the afterbirth. 2. Seize the mass close up to the vulva 
between two pieces of wood and dragging gently move it 
from side to side to titillate the passages and stimulate the 
womb to contraction. 3. Give a dose of physic (Glauber 
or Epsom salts) with aromatics (ginger, pepper, copaiva. 
cardamoms, caraway, etc.) 4. The most satisfactory 
method is to remove it by the hand, in twelve to twenty- 
four hours after parturition, before the neck of the womb 
has closed so as to forbid the introduction of the arm. In 
cows the protruding membranes are gently pulled upon by 
the left hand while the right is introduced into the womb 
and the connecting cotyledons or placentulse of the mem- 
branes are, one by one, squeezed out from their connec- 
tions with those of the womb. The process may be slow, 
as fifty such connections may demand separation, but 
patience will be crowned with final success, the great 
points being to tear nothing and to bring up and separate 
the last portions as perfectly as the first. 

Prevention. In poverty-stricken animals much may 
often be done by warm sloppy food for a week or two 
prior to parturition. 

Leucokrhgea. Catarrh of the Womb or Vagina. This 
often results from retained afterbirth or violence done in 
parturition, but may occur independently of both or even 
in the virgin animal. There is a whitish discharge from 
the vulva, foetid if from retained afterbirth, with rapid 
falling off in flesh and milk, in spirit and appetite. The 
subjects can rarely be impregnated. 

Treatment. Introduce a catheter into the womb, draw 
off the contained fluid, wash out with tepid water intro- 
duced through the tube, and inject one of the following 
solutions : 1 drachm of sulphate of zinc, sulphate of cop- 
per, acetate of lead, permanganate of potassa or carbolic 
acid, or ^ drachm chloride of zinc, dissolved in a pint of 
water and five ounces of glycerine added. This injection 
should be repeated daily until the discharge ceases. A 



324 



The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



Fig. 39. 



course of tonics should accompany this treatment (sul- 
phate of iron 2 drachms, pepper 1 drachm, ginger % 
oz., gentian % oz. daily. 

Eveesion of the Yagina or Womb. The former may oc- 
cur before parturition or even in the virgin state, the lat- 
ter only after parturition. Hot, relaxing stables and regi- 
men and too great a slope of the stalls backward are among 
the causes of the first, violence in parturition or in the 
removal of the afterbirth, of the second. Digestive and 
urinary disorders are further causes. The everted vagina 
forms a simple rounded mass easily distinguished from 

the bladder by the absence of 
the ureters, and from the womb 
by that of the two divisions or 
horns, and in the case of rumi- 
nants by the cotyledons. Treat- 
ment is simple : Adjust the slope 
of the stall, making the hinder 
part the higher ; obviate costive- 
ness, diarrhoea or any other 
source of irritation ; and adjust 
a rope truss as follows : Take 
two ropes, each more than 
double the length of the animal, 
bend each double and intertwist 
them at this bend so as to cir- 
cumscribe an oval opening a 
little larger than that of the vulva ; this having been ad- 
justed to this orifice the two upper ends are carried 
around the rump, crossed over each other repeatedly in 
their passage along the back and finally tied to a collar 
previously placed around the neck; the lower ends are 
carried down between the thighs, one on each side of the 
udder, and forward on the sides of the abdomen and chest 
to be fixed to the collar. It may be made as tight as 
seems necessary and will tighten with every effort at strain- 
ing so that eversion becomes impossible. It may be made 




Fig. 39 — Rope truss for everted 
womb. 



Diseases of the Organs of Generation. 325 

more secure by attaching the ropes to a surcingle as well. 
This truss must of course be removed when true labor- 
pains come on. 

In e version of the womb give a full dose of chloral, 
raise the hind parts, place the womb on a sheet, wash it 
with warm water and laudanum, wrap it tightly in a linen 
bandage, beginning at the free end, then press that free 
end inward and so with the successive parts till the whole 
has been introduced into the abdomen. Remove the loos- 
ened bandage and apply the truss. 

INFLAMMATION OP THE WOMB. 

Causes. Lacerations, bruises and other injuries in par- 
turition or in removal of the afterbirth, exposure to cold 
or wet after parturition, retained afterbirth, etc. 

Symptoms. Two or three days after parturition a shiv- 
ering fit, colicky pains, looking at abdomen, plaintive cries, 
twisting of the tail, shifting of the hind feet, tenderness of 
loins and abdomen, arching of the loins, vulva red and 
swollen, frequent straining with foetid discharge, the hand 
introduced into the womb finds both its neck and body 
dilated with fluid contents, the belly becomes tense and 
swollen, there is grinding of the teeth, insatiable thirst 
and loss of power over the limbs. The pulse and respira- 
tion are accelerated and the temperature of the body 
raised. It may end in poisoning of the blood with pus or 
absorbed putrid matters, or in gangrene, or if recovery en- 
sues it may be perfected in two or three weeks. Peritoni- 
tis and enteritis frequently coexist and are equally fatal 
at this period. 

Treatment. Wash out the womb, as in leucorrhcea, with 
chlorine water or a solution of chloride of lime, perman- 
ganate of potassa or carbolic acid, adding a solution of 
gum Arabic, glycerine and laudanum to render it more 
soothing. Give an active purgative (in the cow sulphate 
of soda 1 lb.) and follow this up by tincture of aconite foul 
times a day, and nitrate of potassa and chlorate of potassa 



326 The Farmer 's Veterinary Adviser. 

once daily. A blister should be applied to the right flank 
(mustard and oil of turpentine in cow or sow, mustard 
alone for other animals). In case of prostration, we*ik 
pulse, stupor, etc., a free use of wine, quinine, camphor 
and general stimulants must be made, with antiseptics 
(chlorate of potassa, carbolic acid, sulpho-carbolates or 
bichromate of potassa). 

PAKTUKITION-FEVEE IN COWS. MILK-FEVEB. PAETUEIENT 
APOPLEXY. 

Causes. Plethora, costiveness and the susceptibility at- 
tendant on parturition. It attacks mainly*heavy milkers, 
animals in full flesh that have been well fed just before 
and after calving, and have been delivered easily with 
little loss of blood or nervous expenditure. It is most 
frequent in the hot season when the grass is most luxuri- 
ant and nutritive, but may occur at any season in the best 
class of cows. 

Symptoms. Dullness, languor, uneasy movements of 
the hind limbs, a full, bounding pulse, red eyes, hot head 
and horns ; soon the cow becomes weak on its limbs, un- 
able to rise, lays the head back on the flank or dashes it 
on the ground, breaking the horns if the surface is hard, 
and struggles convulsively with its limbs. The surface 
may now be bedewed with perspiration, the eyes red, 
fixed or rolling convulsively, the pupils dilated, the heat 
of the head still greater and the pulse quicker and weaker. 
Sensation is completely lost, the skin may be pricked at 
any point without the slightest response and the eyeball 
touched without causing winking. Neither dung nor urine 
is passed, the intestines and bladder being also the seat 
of paralysis or torpor. 

In one form of the disease the heat of the head, delir- 
ium and violence may be almost entirely wanting, the 
prominent symptoms being the fever, accelerated pulse 
and breathing, elevated temperature, loss of power over 
the limbs, paralysis of sensation, inappetence, torpor oi 



Diseases of the Organs of Generation. 327 

bowels and bladder. Both forms are exceedingly fatal, 
almost all attacked within two days after calving perish- 
ing, and a large proportion of those taken ill during the 
first week. 

Prevention. Spa»e diet (starvation in the plethoric) foi 
a week before and after calving, an active purgative (Ep ■ 
som salts) to act as soon after calving as possible, plenty 
of fresh, cool air, milking, if necessary, before calving and 
thrice daily after. In the full flush of grass it is needful 
to keep plethoric parturient subjects in-doors, upon dry 
hay with plenty of salt and water, or on a very bare past- 
ure. Even if attacked a week after calving they usually 
recover. 

Treatment. If the animal is seen before it goes down, 
bleed four or six quarts from the jugular, but never after 
the pulse has lost its fullness and hardness; apply ice- 
cold water, bags of ice or a solution of an ounce each of 
nitre and sal ammoniac in a quart of water to the head 
round the base of the horns, give a powerful purgative, 
(2 lbs. Epsom salts, ^ oz. carbonate of ammonia, \ dr. 
nux vomica,) apply friction to the limbs, draw the milk off 
at frequent intervals and repeat the ammonia and nux 
vomica every four hours. The nux vomica may be re- 
placed by strychnia, 1 grain with 2 or three drops of vin- 
egar in a teaspoonful of water and injected under the skin 
twice with four hours interval, or ergot of rye may be used 
instead. The fever may often be materially reduced by 
enveloping the whole body in a sheet wrung out of cold 
water, and covering up with one or several dry ones ac- 
cording to the season. 

In the second or torpid form of the disorder there is 
often no call for cold applications to the head, while pur- 
gatives and nux vomica are especially demanded. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

DISEASES OF THE MAIOOE (DDDER) AND 
TEATS. 

Bloody-milk. Blue or viscid milk. Congestion and inflammation of the 
mammary glands, Garget, Mammitis. Impervious teat. Sore teats, Scabs, 
Warts. Simple and cancerous tumors of the glands. 

BLOODY-MILK. 

Causes. Blows on the udder or commencing inflamma- 
tion from any other cause ; heat or rut ; a sudden acces- 
sion of rich food, causing local congestion with increased 
flow of milk ; the consumption of acrid plants (ranunculus, 
hydropiper, resinous shoots, etc.,) and the conditions which 
give rise to red- water. The mills may have a red sedi- 
ment froin feeding madder, logwood and other agents. 

Treatment. If from congested glands, a saline laxative 
followed by nitre, restricted diet and bathing with cold 
water. If from acrid plants, withhold them, give a laxa- 
tive to clear away any yet retained in the stomach and 
follow up with small doses of nitre and acetate of lead. 
If from partial congestion, with a somewhat nodular state 
of the gland and but little heat or tenderness, rub daily 
with compound tincture of iodine mixed with three iimea 
its bulk of water. Milk carefully and gently. 

BLUE OR VISCID MILK. 

Due to cryptogams in this liquid. Remove from the 
vicinity of decomposing animal matter, withhold food 01 
water containing vegetable germs and administer, daily 
bisulphite of soda (2 drs., cow). 



Diseases of the Mammae (Udder) and Teats. 329 

CONGESTION AND INFLAMMATION OF THE MAMMARY GLANDS. 
GARGET. MAMMITIS. 

Causes. Blows 'on the gland, lying on a cold or shari 
stone, sores on the teats, leaving the milk unduly long vu 
the bag (hefting), standing in a current of cold air, expos- 
ure in cold showers or inclement weather, rich milk-mak- 
ing food too suddenly supplied, indigestion, or indeed any 
derangement of the general health is liable to produce this 
disease in an animal in full milk. Ewes often lose their 
bags or their lives from sudden weaning of their lambs, 
or cows from neglect in milking. Some aliments, like 
cotton seeds, are dangerous. 

Symptoms. There may be simple warm, hot, tense 
(caked) bag, or there may be a circumscribed nodular 
mass in the centre of the bag. In severer cases there is 
lameness on the affected side, a red, hot, tense painful 
gland, with no secretion or only a bloody clotted mass. 
These cases come on with violent shivering, high temper- 
ature, strong rapid pulse and quickened breathing, dry 
nose, costiveness and suppression of urine. They may 
end in abscess, induration or gangrene, or a perfect re- 
covery may ensue. 

Treatment. In mild cases with no fever and little pain, 
rub well with camphorated spirits or weak iodine oint- 
ment or with plenty of elboiv-grease. Milk thrice a day and 
rub for a considerable time on each occasion. If unequal 
to active rubbing put a good hungry calf to the udder. 

In the severe cases, if seen in the shivering fit, give a 
strong cordial (ginger, pepper, whisky, brandy, gin or ale 
in several quarts of warm water) and envelop from head 
to tail in a thick rug wrung out of water as nearly boiling 
as possible, covering all with several dry blankets and 
binding firmly to the body ; give copious warm vater in- 
jections and bring if possible into a sweat. When this 
has lasted half an hour uncover gradually, rub dry and 
cover with a light dry wrapping. 

If the disease has advanced further and there is already 



330 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

active inflammation in the gland, foment continuously with 
warm water or support in a poultice containing boric acid, 
cutting holes for the teats, adding a little belladonna to re- 
lieve the pain. Give an active purge (salts) and follow up 
with aconite and nitre. Draw off the milk frequently, using 
a milking tube if the act is very painful. If the discharge 

Fig. 40. 




Fig. 40 — Milking Tube. 

smells sour inject a weak solution of carbonate of soda 
and permanganate of potassa (5 grains of each to 1 oz. of 
water). If the gland becomes hard and indurated, rub with 
iodine ointment or mercurial ointment, not both. If mat- 
ter forms, open with the knife. If gangrene ensues, use 
lotions of carbolic acid or chloride of lime. Many sheep 
do well with a coating of tar on the gland. In the ad- 
vanced stages nourish well and give tonics (sulphate of 
iron, gentian, columba). 

IMPERVIOUS TEAT. 

From concretions from the milk, which are freely mov- 
able in the teat and up into the gland. From polypus in 
the teat hanging by a band from the mucous membrane 
and hence movable only in narrow limits. From thicken- 
ing of the mucous membrane and contraction of the walls 
of the duct to absolute closure. From the formation of a 
membrane across the duct of the teat. From closure of 
the external orifice of the teat effected in the healing of a 
Boro. 

Treatment. Concretions may be extracted by manipu- 
lation or with a grooved director, the teat having been 
first relaxed in a warm solution of belladonna. Polypi 
are removed by making a free incision through the teat, 
twisting off the tumor, accurately sewing up the wound 



Diseases of the Mamma (Udder) and Teats. 331 



and milking for some time with a tube. The obliteration 
of the duct by contraction of its walls or by a membra- 
nous growth is to be met by a bistuori cache (a knife one 

Fig. 41. 




Fig. 41 — Bistuori Cachd. 

line in breadth hidden in a groove of a sharp-pointed 
handle, but which can be pressed out of its case so as to 
cut to any extent desired) and a silver or gutta-percha 
teat tube to be kept tied in the newly made channel until 
it heals. It is well to leave these surgical operations un- 
til the milk is dried up. A simple instrument is in use 
by dairymen, consisting of a steel probe flattened out to 
two lines at one extremity and with finely sharpened 
point. 

SOEE TEATS. SCABS. WAKTS. 

Sores, chaps and scabs on the teats are to be treated 
by soothing applications. One ounce each of spermaceti 
and almond-oil melted together will often suffice. Or 5 
grains each of balsam of Tolu or Peru may be added. 
Or a solution of 5 grains of sugar of lead or chloral-hy- 
drate and \ oz. each of glycerine and water. But no plan 
will succeed without gentle milking, with dry teats, espe- 
cially in winter, or in bad cases without the use of a milk- 
ing tube. Warts are to be removed by the knife, scissors 
and caustic. 

Simple and Malignant Tumors of the mammary glands 
are met with in all species of domestic quadrupeds and 
demand removal with the knife. 



CHAPTER XV. 
DISEASES OF THE EYES. 

Trichiasis. Torn eyelids. Superficial inflammation of the eye. Simple 
ophthalmia. Conjunctivitis. Parasites on the eyes. Specks or films on the 
eye. Ulcers of the transparent cornea. Tumors of the transparent cornea. 
Enzootic ophthalmia in cattle and sheep. Internal ophthalmia. Inflamma- 
tion of the deep structures of the eyeball. Iritis. Choroiditis. Retinitis. 
Recurring ophthalmia. Periodic ophthalmia. Moon-blindness. Cataract. 
Palsy of the nerve of sight. Amaurosis. Glass eyes. Glaucoma. Cancer • 
Staphyloma. Worms in the eye. 

TRICHIASIS. 

Turning in of the eyelashes ; a common cause of inflam 
mation. Snip off the offending hair with scissors. 

TORN EYELIDS. 

Should be accurately brought together and held by col- 
lodion, which is to be laid on with a brush, layer after 
layer, until strong enough to hold safely. If this is not at 
hand bring together with a quilled suture — the stitches, 
with carbolated thread or catgut, being tied round two 
quills lying on the respective flaps, so as to prevent puck- 
ering of the edges and to secure even healing. If the lips 
are brought into accurate apposition and stitches placed 
closely together, the quills may be discarded. To prevent 
rubbing of the healing and itching eye, turn the animal 
round in the stall and tie short to the two posts so that 
the head cannot reach either. Feed from a bag hung in 
front and cut open half way down to admit the nose. 



Diseases of the Eyes. 333 

SUPEKFICIAL INFLAMMATION OF THE EYE. SIMPLE 
OPHTHALMIA. CONJUNCTIVITIS. 

Causes. Blows with whips, etc., liay-seed, chaff, dust, 
lime, thorns, etc., in the eye ; standing in a current of cold 
air ; irritant emanations from dung and urine ; obstruction 
of the lachrymal duct with swelling at the inner angle of 
the eye and hardened mucus in the orifice of the duct as 
seen in the floor of the chamber of the nose ; in horse and 
ox, the presence of a worm— -filaria laclwymalis — inside the 
eyelids ; and in pigs of the measle bladder- worm — cysticer- 
cus cellulosa — in the fat around the eye. 

Symptoms. Bed, sore, watery eyes, with or without 
fever according to the severity of the attack, soon followed 
by a bluish or white film or opacity extending no deeper 
than the surface of the transparent part of the eyeball. 
The swelling of the eyelids may extend to the hollow above 
the eye, filling it up. There is no suffering or winking 
when brought into a bright light, nor any undue contrac- 
tion of the pupil as compared with healthy eyes. If for- 
eign bodies are present they will be detected by exami- 
nation. 

Treatment. Hay-seed, chaff, etc., may be removed with 
a pair of small forceps, with the point of a lead pencil, or 
with the head of a pin covered with a soft handkerchief. 
Lime and sand may be similarly removed or washed out 
with a fine syringe. Thorns may be picked out with a 
needle, the animal having been first thrown and the eye 
fixed with the fingers or by putting the patient under the 
influence of ether or chloroform. Or if not too deep they 
will slough out of their own accord in a day or two. The 
patient must be protected from cold or any other apparent 
cause of illness, should take a dose of physic, and have 
the affected eye covered with a cloth constantly wet with 
a solution of 1 dr. sugar of lead or sulphate of zinc, 10 grains 
morphia and 1 pint water. It is often best to use it tepid 
but if used cold it should be maintained so. 



334 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

WHITE SPECKS AND CLOUDINESS OF THE EYE. 

These are the results of inflammation and if confined to 
the transparent outer coat of the eye may usually be re- 
moved by touching them daily with a feather dipped in a 
solution of 3 grs. nitrate of silver in an ounce of distilled 
water. Such an application should never be made while 
the part is still inflamed and the eyelids swollen and red, 
as it will then be painful and injurious. It will usually 
fail to remove the speck when that consists in a thick 
cicatrix following an ulcer, or when red vessels are seen 
running across it. 

ULCEES OF THE TRANSPARENT CORNEA. 

These also follow inflammation and are to be recognized 
by the visible breaks or abrasions in the surface layers of 
the transparent coat of the eye. Apply the same agent as 
for specks but of double or treble the strength, and improve 
the general health by a liberal diet and a course of tonics 
(sulphate of iron, nux vomica, cinchona). 

TUMORS OF THE TRANSPARENT CORNEA. 

These, if not of a cancerous nature, nor connected with 
the vascular colored curtain which encircles the pupil 
(the iris), may be removed with the knife or scissors, the 
part touched with a stick of nitrate of silver, and a lotion 
like that used for simple ophthalmia applied on a cloth. 

ENZOOTIC OPHTHALMIA IN CATTLE AND SHEEP. 

This affection attacks one or several herds or flocks in a 
locality, at any season and without ^apparent cause, ex- 
cepting proximity. The symptoms are those of simple 
ophthalmia, but of a severe type, with much fever and 
complete clouding of the eye from exudation into the 
whole thickness of the transparent cornea, followed by 
ulceration, and sometimes perforation of this membrane, 
loss of the humors of the eye, and permanent blindness. 

Treatment. Separate the sound from the diseased and 



Diseases of the Eyes. 335 

from the pastures or buildings where the malady has ap- 
peared. Give the affected strong purgatives (salts) fol- 
lowed by diuretics (nitre), place in a dark, quiet, dry 
building, and keep a cloth over the eye saturated with a 
solution of a drachm each of nitrate of silver and carbolic 
acid and 10 grs. of morphia to a quart of distilled water. 
Blisters may be applied to the cheeks or behind the ears 
(Spanish flies 2 drs., lard f oz., for cattle; twice the 
amount of lard for sheep; rub well in). The resulting 
ulcers may be treated in the ordinary way. 

INTERNAL OPHTHALMIA. INFLAMMATION OF THE DEEP STRUCT- 
UEES OF THE EYEBALL. IRITIS. CHOROIDITIS. RETINITIS. 

Causes. Severe blows or other forms of local irritation ; 
extremes of darkness and light ; exposure to a draught of 
cold air, to a storm ; various constitutional disturbances, 
especially those of the digestive organs. 

Symptoms. Like those of superficial ophthalmia, but 
with more fever, constitutional disturbance, accelerated 
pulse, loss of appetite, increased heat of body, and above 
all with retraction of the eye into its socket, pro- 
trusion of the haw from its inner angle over its surface, 
closure of the lids and contraction of the pupil when 
brought into the light, and the presence of a turbid liquid 
behind the transparent cornea, with white floating flakes, 
and a yellowish or whitish deposit at the bottom of the 
chamber. The brilliant reflection of the iris or curtain 
is also largely impaired. As the disease advances a white 
speck or cloud appears in the lens, behind the pupil and 
iris. 

Treatment. Place in a dark building with pure, dry 
air, purge (cow, salts ; horse, aloes ; dog, castor-oil,) and 
follow up with febrifuges (nitre, digitalis ; in dogs or pigs 
tartar emetic) ; apply alternately by means of a rag over 
the eye a lotion of 20 grs. acetate of lead, 20 drops extract 
of belladonna and 1 quart water, and one of 20 grains 
sulphate of zinc, 20 drops of tincture of (physostigma) 



336 The Farmer's Veterinary Advise?'. 

Calabar bean, and 1 qt. water, changing twice daily ; blis 
ter the face or neck as for enzootic ophthalmia. 

RECURRING OPHTHALMIA. PERIODIC OPHTHALMIA. 

MOON-BLINDNESS. 

Attacks solipeds only. 

Causes. Hereditary predisposition ; breeding in damp, 
cloudy, foggy or marshy localities ; keeping in damp, close, 
ill-conditioned stables ; the irritation about the head at- 
tendant on teething ; clogging the digestive organs by 
feeding wheat or maize without salt or sulphate of soda 
the presence of worms in the intestines ; whatever lowers 
the general health, and the general causes of iritis. 

Symptoms. Like those of internal ophthalmia with, in 
many cases, increased tension and hardness of the eyeball, 
and its deeper retraction into the orbit. The main differ- 
ence is in the liability to recur, at intervals of three weeks, 
a month or more, if the exciting causes have not been 
removed, until the subject is left blind. In the intervals 
between the attacks the transparent coat of the eye retains 
a hazy bluish cloudiness around its border, the iris is 
wanting in its normal lustre, the anterior chamber has 
often a slight deposit at its lower part, and the upper eye- 
lid is bent at an unnatural angle about one-third of its 
length from the inner angle. After two or three attacks 
a cataract remains. 

Prevention. Avoid, for breeding purposes, all horses 
belonging to an affected family ; all localities that are 
damp, foggy, cloudy or relaxing ; as well as ill-appointed 
stables. Maintain good health and condition by sOund 
feeding, watering, housing, grooming and exercise. When 
threatened remove to a drier and more bracing climate. 

Treatment. As for iritis. Some cases, like rheumatism, 
are benefited by colchicum and the free use of alkalies 
(carbonates or acetates of potassa or soda). Those that 
present increased tension and hardness of the eyeball 
should be early treated by iridectomy which can, however 



Diseases of the Eyes. 337 

only be undertaken by the surgeon. All cases should 
have a course of tonics (oxide of iron, nux vomica, ginger) 
as soon as the violence of the fever has abated, and should 
be submitted to a regimen calculated to improve their 
condition so as to ward off a new attack. Recovery from 
a particular attack may be expected in from 6 to 10 days, 
and this contributes to sustain the reputation of such ri- 
diculous resorts as knocking out the wolf teeth, and such 
injurious ones as cutting out the haw (hooks). 

CATAEACT. 

This is the most constant result of internal ophthalmia, 
though it may occur from other causes, such as diabetes or 
uraemia. The condition is opacity of the lens, and may 
be recognized as a white speck, or a white fleecy cloud 
filling, in the worst cases, the whole of a widely dilated 
pupil. It is best seen with the animal looking out of the 
stable door, and with a dark background. A still more 
satisfactory examination can be made with a lighted taper 
in a dark room. Three images of the taper are reflected, 
(1) from the surface of the eye (cornea), (2) from the an- 
terior surface of the lens, and (3) from the posterior sur- 
face of the lens. The two anterior are upright, the pos- 
terior is inverted. If either of the two posterior images 
is changed into a diffuse white haze in passing over any 
part. of the pupil it implies an exudation into that part of 
the lens — a cataract. Haziness of the large anterior im- 
age is only caused by opacity of the cornea. 

Treatment. Newly formed cataracts will sometimes 
cloar up, by absorption, under such treatment as is adopted 
for inflammation, but the rule is that an opacity of the 
lens once found, is permanent. In cattle and sheep the 
lens may be extracted or depressed as in man, but in the 
horse such an operation would be worse than useless, as 
without spectacles he could never see things in their right 
form or position, and would become an incorrigible shyer, 
Better leave him blind. Cases not due to recurring oph- 

23 



338 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

thalmia may be benefited in the long run by applying a drop 
of phosphorated oil (phosphorus 2 grs, almond- oil, 1 oz.,^ 
to the eye, daily, for several months. 

PALSY OF THE NERVE OF SIGHT. AMAUROSIS. GLASS E?ES. 

Causes. Congestion, tumors, dropsy, or other disease 
of the brain. Injury to the nerve of sight by pressure or 
otherwise. Infl ammation with exudation into the retina. 
Excess of light. It may be symptomatic from overloaded 
stomach, from bloodlessness, and sometimes from gesta- 
tion. 

Symptoms. Eyes unnaturally clear from wide dilatation 
of the pupils. Failure of the pupils to contract when ex- 
posed to light or sunshine, or to dilate in darkness. The 
subjects do not wince when a feint is made to strike them 
unless the hand produces a current of air. The animals 
step high to avoid obstacles and have very active ears, 
which are constantly exercised to make up for lack of 
sight. 

Treatment. If due to removable cause stop this, then 
blister the cheek or behind the ear, as for ophthalmia, and 
give nerve stimulants (strychnia, nitrate of silver, etc.) 

Among the other affections of the eye are Glaucoma, the 
true nature of which can only be ascertained with the 
ophthalmoscope ; Cancer which demands the skill of the 
anatomist for removal ; Staphyloma or vascular tumor of 
the cornea ; Worm in the eye {Filaria Oculi) which is to be 
9xtractedby skillful puncture; etc. 



CHAPTER XVI 
DISEASES OF THE NEEYOUS SYSTEM. 

General causes. Epilepsy. Falling Sickness. Cho: ea, St. Vitus's Dance, 
St. Guy's Dance. Vertigo, Megrims in horses. Lock-jaw, Trismus, Teta- 
nus. Convulsions, Fits. Sleepy Staggers, Coma Somnolentum. Apo- 
plexy. Inflammation of the Brain, Phrenitis, Encephalitis, Cerebral Men- 
ingitis. Inflammation of the spinal cord, Myelitis, Spinal Meningitis. Ep- 
idemic Cerebro-spinal Meningitis, Cerebro-spinal Fever. Enzootic Myelitis 
in sheep. Trembling, Hydro-rachitis. Paralysis. Loss of sensation or 
voluntary motion. General Paralysis. Paraplegia, Palsy of the hind limbs. 
Hemiplegia, Palsy of one lateral half of the body. Facial Paralysis. Other 
local palsies. Stomach Staggers, "Loco," and Acute Lead Poisoning. Sun- 
stroke. 

The frequency of these affections bears some relation 
to the development and activity of the great nerve centres 
and especially the brain. They are often symptomatic 
of other diseases, the irritation being conveyed along the 
nerves to the nerve centres so as to derange their func- 
tions ; at other times they have their origin in these cen- 
tres themselves. Among common causes may be named : 
exposure to intense heat or cold, especially with a dry 
parching atmosphere ; excess of light ; deranged or ex- 
cited circulation, as in loss of blood or plethora, obstacles 
to the return of blood from the head, by the jugular veins, 
or imperfect supply from thickening of the cranial bor es ; 
the influence of poisons, pressure, etc. ; severe overexer- 
tion ; digestive, hepatic and urinary disorders, and para- 
sites. 

EPILEPSY. FALLING SICKNESS. 

This is seen in dogs, cattle, horses and pigs in about 
the order named. It usually exists independently of any 



34:0 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

observable change of brain structure. Thus, in dogs it 
follows distemper, or depends on teething, worms in the 
stomach or intestines, or acari (pentastoma) in the nasal 
sinuses. In pigs indigestible substances in the stomach 
may determine it. Brown-Sequard showed how it could 
be developed at will in Guinea-pigs by tickling the neck 
and has even produced it in the human subject. In all 
animals it may be looked on as, generally, a reflex act. 
Abscesses, tumors, etc., of the brain have been found in 
certain instances in horses, and the malady has super- 
vened on a severe fright and chase, or a broken horn or 
other injury to the head in cows. Probably in these 
cases the disease of the brain has rendered it more sus- 
ceptible to the impression coming from a distant part of 
the body. The disease has proved hereditary in cattle. 

Symptoms. Sudden loss of sensation and voluntary 
movement, with convulsive contraction of the muscles of 
the trunk and limbs. The patient may or may not appear 
dull or stupid for some time, but the attack is always sud- 
den, the victim crying, falling to the ground, stiffening all 
over, with clenched jaws, frothing at the lips and fixed 
red eyeballs. The attack may last for one or several min- 
utes, after which the muscles relax and the animal be- 
comes conscious but retains considerable dullness or lan- 
guor for a day or more. The attacks are more or less fre- 
quent according to the activity of the exciting cause. 

Treatment. Remove the causes — worms or other irri- 
tants in the intestinal canal or elsewhere : — in excitable 
plethoric animals restrict diet and give more exercise ; in 
the bloodless, feed highly and give iron and bitters; in 
dyspeptic pigs give sound food and bitters (gentian, quas- 
sia, camomile, boneset, serpentaria, myrrh,) with iron. 
In excitable stallions castration is usually needful. During 
the attack inhalations of chloroform or ether, or the in- 
jection of these agents or of chloral-hydrate will serve to 
cut short the attack. If dependent on irritation of some 
known part of the surface, attacks may be obviated by 



Diseases of the Nervous System. 341 

cutting the nerves proceeding from this part, or better by 
light firing with an iron at a red or white heat. 

CHOEEA. ST. VITUS'S DANCE. ST. GUY'S DANCE. 

Mainly seen in the dog and horse. Occurs in subjects 
debilitated or worn out by disease, as in dogs by distem- 
per. There is no constant structural change in the brain, 
but the occurrence of the disease as a consequence of 
exhausting disorders and the excess of urea, etc., in the 
urine, may be taken as implying an altered state of the 
blood, and of the processes of sanguification. 

Symptoms. Momentary spasms of the voluntary mus- 
cles, leading to jerking of one or more limbs, of the head 
or of the entire body. This continues without intermission 
in sleep as in waking, and, by wearing the subject out, 
increases the disorder. In the horse it occurs mainly in 
the hind limbs, but will also attack the fore, and tempora- 
rily the muscles of the body. 

Treatment. Re-establish health and vigor by abundant 
nourishment', open air exercise, tonics (sulphate and car- 
bonate of iron, cascarilla, quiniaj cold baths, rubbing dry 
afterwards, and strychnia. Nerve sedatives (chloral-hy- 
drate) may be given to check or moderate the spasms. 

VEETIGO. MEGEIHS IN HOESES. 

An equine disease characterized by sudden and tempo- 
rary loss of sensation and voluntary motion, with trem- 
bling, and it may be champing of the jaws, but without the 
general spasms of epilepsy. 

Causes. Brain disorders such as tumors, congestions, 
effusions, etc., or modified circulation from compression 
of the jugular veins, or disease of the heart. Plethora is 
a frequent cause in the young. 

Symptoms. The animal drawing a load, especially up- 
hill, with a tight collar, driven hurriedly in extreme heat, 
or in a strong glare of sunshine or snow, suddenly hangs 
on the reins, slackens his pace, staggers a little perhaps, 



342 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

and if not stopped drops in harness, first, it may be, 
starting to one side, or rearing up so as to fall back over 
the driver. If stopped on the first sign of failing, the 
attack may usually be warded off. If it has taken place, 
the loosening of the harness and a few minutes rest will 
generally bring the animal round, so that he can get on 
his legs, but he remains nervous and excitable for several 
days. 

Prevention. Treatment. In plethoric young horses im- 
prove the condition by restricted diet and regular increas- 
ing exercise, or turn out to grass for a time. .Give an 
occasional laxative and diuretic. Avoid tight or badly 
fitting collars or whatever presses on the veins of the 
neck. Shelter the top of the head from the direct rays of 
the sun by a sunshade. Wear a wet sponge constantly 
between the ears when at work. When the premonitory 
symptoms appear, stop, slacken the collar, cover the eyes, 
apply cold water or ice to the head and neck ; blood may 
even be drawn from the palate, the temporal artery or 
the jugular vein. This should be followed by an active 
purgative (aloes, Glauber salts,) and nerve sedatives 
(chloral-hydrate, bromide of potassium). A laxative diet 
must be kept up for some time or a run at grass allowed. 

LOCK-JAW. TRISMUS. TETANUS. 

This consists in persistent (tonic) cramps of the volun- 
tary muscles. When confined to those of the face it is 
trismus or lock-jaw, when general tetanus. 

Causes. Wounds, especially of unyielding structures, 
like the foot, the firm fibrous layers covering the limbs, 
shoulder or croup, or the bones (tail). Wounds implicat- 
ing large sensory nerves, or enclosing rust, gritty matters, 
or castrating clamps, or subject to chafing as between the 
thighs, are occasional causes. In other cases exposure 
to cold or wet or a continual dropping on some part of 
the body is the cause. In still others it appears without 
any obvious reason, though probably from internal lesions, 



Diseases of the Nervous System. 343 

It is remarkable that it rarely occurs until wounds are 
well advanced in healing. In lambs it has been observed 
in connection with overfeeding of the ewes on trefoil, 
grain, etc., as well as from exposure. 

Symptoms. General stiffness ; hardness of the affected 
muscles ; protrusion of the haw, from the inner angle of 
the eye, over the ball, becoming more marked if the 
animal is excited, as by jerking up the head ; in the worst 
cases the head is elevated and carried stiffly, the tail 
raised and trembling ; the legs directed slightly outward 
like four immovable posts, and in walking are lifted almost 
without bending; the animal cannot lie down, or if he 
gets down, rouses the spasms fatally in his struggles to 
rise; the bowels are always torpid; the breathing is 
excited and in bad cases stertorous ; and though the 
spasms never give way they occur in paroxysms, which are 
easily roused by movement, the presence of strangers, 
loud talking, banging of doors, rustling of straw or any 
other noise or commotion. It usually proves fatal by the 
cramps of the muscles of the throat (larynx) and chest. 

Treatment. Secure perfect quiet in a dark box, safely 
locked from curious observers; place slings beneath the 
patient so that he can stand clear of them or rest in them 
at will ; remove straw or other source of excitement ; feed 
very soft bran mashes or thick gruels, from such a level as 
does not require any dropping of the head to reach them ; 
give a strong dose of purgative medicine (horse, aloes ; 
sheep, ox, sulphate of soda or magnesia; swine, dog, 
castor-oil), following this up by antispasmodics thrice daily 
(belladonna, prussic acid, chloral-hydrate, lobelia, tobacco, 
physostigma, etc.), or these may be given by injection, or 
chloroform, ether, or nitrite of amyl by inhalation. If it 
does not excite the animal too much, give a steam bath, 
or a thorough perspiration with hot rugs, covered with 
dry ones. The bowels must be kept open by small 
doses of powdered croton seeds or podophyllin mixed 
with solid extract of belladonna and smeared on the back 



344 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



teeth as often as may be necessary. A bad case ay ill 
require six weeks to acquire complete ease of movement. 

CONVULSIONS. FITS. 

Seen most frequently in young dogs and cats during 
teething and in bitches at the period of parturition or 
when reduced by suckling a large litter. In dogs or pigs 
they are common from indigestion or intestinal worms, 
and will occur in all animals from disorders in the brain 
or poisons in the circulation. The symptoms are those oi 
sudden agitating spasms of one or more parts of the body, 
usually protrusion and redness of the eyeballs, and froth- 
ing from the mouth, with complete insensibility. Treat- 
ment consists in removing the causes as far as ascertained ; 
lance inflamed gums ; expel worms or irritating matters 
from stomach and bowels ; correct dyspepsia by good 
feeding, air, exercise, lodging, and by tonics (bitters, iron, 
etc.) The convulsions may be checked by such agents as 
ether or chloral-hydrate given by inhalation or injection. 

SLEEPY STAGGEKS. COMA SOMNOLENTUM. 

A chronic disease of horses characterized by drowsiness 
with impaired consciousness and voluntary movement, 
without fever. It may be associated with pressure on the 
brain by tumors, soft or bony, but above all by serous 
effusion. Increase and decrease of the brain, and thick- 
ening of its membranes are other occasional concomitants. 
It appears to be at times connected with deranged blood- 
forming processes, as in diseases of the right heart, lungs 
and liver, or with defective elimination, as in kidney dis- 
orders. 

Symptoms. Sleepiness, listlessness, want of life and in- 
telligence, a stupid demented look in the eye. drooping 
lids, unsteadiness in the gait, perhaps only seen in turning 
or backing ; in worse cases the patient will twist the legs 
over each other in walking straight, or will even rest the 
head or haunches on manger or stall. The bowels are 



Diseases of the Nervous System. 345 

torpid. The symptoms are like those of stomach staggers 
without the abdominal disorder. 

The animal may recover so as to work well in winter, 
while utterly useless in summer, and this state may last 
for several years. A complete recovery is rare and yet it 
is occasionally seen, everything depending on the struct- 
ural changes existing. But even in the incurable cases 
the progress may be retarded by treatment. 

Treatment. In hot weather keep in a cool well-aired 
place, or in the open air in the shade. Give soft laxative 
diet, free access to cold water and an occasional purgative 
(sulphate of soda). A course of tonics (iron, nux vomica, 
gentian,) and diuretics (digitalis, iodide of potassium, 
bromide of potassium,) are often useful. Blisters may be 
applied to the neck or limbs if there seems to be effusion. 
The correction of any existing disorder in the lungs, liver 
or kidneys, will increase the prospects of cure; when 
well enough to use, such horses should wear a breast-strap 
in place of a collar, and should not be overdone. They 
should never be used for breeding purposes. 

APOPLEXY. 

Sudden loss of sensation and voluntary motion from 
effusion on the brain, and associated with a turgid condi- 
tion of the blood-vessels of the head and neck. 

Causes. It occurs in plethoric animals during exertion, 
in those suffering from softening of the brain, the result 
of plugging of the vessels with fibrinous clots, of concus- 
sion, congestion, etc. The symptoms are congestion of the 
head, dullness, heaviness, followed by complete paralysis, 
sensory and motor, loud stertorous breathing, and dilata- 
tion of the pupils. 

Treatment. In the early stages, before the patient is 
paralyzed, apply cold water or ice to the head, bleed from 
the temporal artery (just behind the eye) or the jugulai 
vein, keep perfectly quiet, and freely open the bowels. 



346 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN. PHRENITIS. ENCEPHALITIS. 
CEREBRAL MENINGITIS. 

This is seen in all domestic animals but especially in 
horses, oxen and sheep. Among the causes may be men- 
tioned : blows on the head with concussion of the brain 
or fracture of the cranial bones ; plugging of the vessels 
in the brain by clots formed in diseases elsewhere ; in- 
fection of the blood with pus or putrid animal fluids; 
sudden changes of temperature ; exposure to extreme heat 
or cold ; the over-exertion of plethoric animals ; alcoholic 
poisoning from feeding spoiled products of distilleries ; 
congestion from a tight collar, loss of jugular, or diseased 
heart ; sympathetic nervous disorder from indigestion ; 
the growth of tumors or parasites in the brain ; feeding 
on ergoted grasses or smut. 

Symptoms. If the brain substance alone is involved 
there is usually dullness, stupor, and palsy, sensory and 
motor : if the membranes covering the brain, there is 
more violence, delirium, irregular movements, pawing, 
stamping, champing the teeth, and partial or general con- 
vulsions. In either case there is trembling, elevated 
temperature, excited pulse and breathing, heat about the 
upper part of the head, injected glaring eyes, rolling or 
set, extreme excitability and violent trembling even when 
just roused from stupor. The patient will sometimes bore 
the head against an obstacle, or rest his haunches on any 
object within reach. The violence is not necessarily con- 
tinuous, but usually occurs in paroxysms, leaving intervals 
of stupor and comparative quiet. During the paroxysm 
the subjects may cry : horses neigh, cattle bellow, sheep 
bleat, pigs squeal and grunt. During the periods of 
stupor the pulse and breathing are usually slow, and this 
applies also to those cases in which the disease has 
merged into a condition of vertigo, coma or paralysis. 

Treatment. Apply ice or cold water to the head, give 
injections of turpentine and oil, a strong purgative (horse, 
aloes and croton ; sheep, ox, Glauber salts and croton 



Diseases of the Neivous System. 347 

pig, croton beans,) with chloral-hydrate and ergot ; bleed 
from the temporal artery and jugular vein, and follow up 
with diuretics and sedatives (nitre, bromide of potassium). 
The animal should be kept in a cool airy stall. If paral- 
ysis follows, treat as for that disease. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE SPINAL COED. MYELITIS. 
SPINAL MENINGITIS. 

The causes are similar to those of phrenitis. The dis- 
ease may show itself by paroxysms of convulsions, with 
exalted temperature, increased circulation and rapid 
breathing, finally merging into paralysis ; or it may be 
manifested at once by palsy without previous spasms, but 
with coldness, and usually dryness, of the paralyzed part, 
though the anterior part of the body may be bathed in 
perspiration. There may be tenderness on striking th.6 
spines in the affected region of the back, and there is 
great pain and unsteadiness in any attempt at movement 
even though the patient may be able to stand. There is 
no redness of the urine as in azotcemia. 

Treatment. Apply cold water or ice to the affected 
part of the spine ; cup or leech, if this can be done ; purge 
as in phrenitis, adding ergot of rye or chloral-hydrate. As 
improvement sets in blister the back (cantharides, mus- 
tard, etc.,) and give diuretics, chloral-hydrate, bromide of 
potassium, ergot of rye. Care must be taken to turn the 
patient often if unable to stand, giving a soft dry bed, and 
to draw off the water frequently with a catheter unless it 
is passed spontaneously. 

EPIDEMIC CEKEBKO-SPINAL MENINGITIS. CEREBEG-SPINAL 
FEVER. 

Inflammation of the substance and coveimgs of the 
brain and spinal cord in horses, sometimes prevailing 
widely in stables or cities, from some cause acting gener- 
ally. The true cause is unknown, though in many cases 
debilitating conditions, like unwholesome food or water, 



348 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

overwork, sudden exposure to intense heat or suddenly 
induced plethora will serve as immediate excitants of the 
morbid process. It is peculiar to no season but has not 
been recognized in Europe. 

Symptoms. These are varied according to the case. 
Some are seized abruptly with cramps of the voluntary 
muscles, especially those of the neck and hind limbs, 
which soon give place to general palsy — motor and sen- 
sory. In other cases the onset is slow. There may be 
trembling, dullness and lassitude for some hours or days, 
or there may be some local paralysis, like that of the 
throat or lips, incapacitating the animal from swallowing 
liquids, or causing profuse slavering. But sooner or later, 
in all cases alike, paralysis sets in and the animal is barely 
able to support itself, or, if worse, lies prostrate on his side 
with linibs extended and flaccid. If the case is to prove 
fatal, coma and complete stupor usually precedes death. 
If recovery ensues, appetite is often preserved throughout 
and restoration of the general health precedes the disap- 
pearance of the palsy, sometimes by several months. The 
pulse throughout is little varied being usually slow and 
soft at first, and weaker and more rapid as the disease 
advances. Breathing, at first little affected, becomes deep 
and stertorous as coma sets in. The surface temperature 
is cool and that in the rectum usually natural. The bow- 
els are generally costive and the urine unchanged and 
may pass involuntarily. Tenderness of the spine may 
sometimes be detected by percussion and will guide to 
the precise seat of local disease. 

Treatment. The disease is very fatal, though varjdng 
much in successive outbreaks. Excepting in cases of 
complete paralysis and coma the patient should be placed 
in slings and have what laxative food (bran mashes, roots, 
etc.,) he will take. Cold lotions (nitre and sal-ammoniac) 
or bags of pounded ice and bran should be applied to the 
spine, and hand-rubbing and mustard or other stimulating 
embrocations, to the limbs. Copious injections of warm 



Diseases of the Nervous System, 349 

water may be thrown into the rectum, containing in solu- 
tion aloes or other purgatives. Opium or chloral-hydrate 
may be given to relieve extreme pain or spasm, but the 
agents which are especially demanded in the early stages 
are bromide of potassium and ergot of rye. These may 
be used as injections or, still better, subcutaneously, the 
first in strong solution, the last as ergotine. When swal- 
lowing is perfect they may be administered by the mouth. 
When the acute symptoms have passed, stimulants (am- 
monia, ether, alcoholic fluids,) and tonics (quinia, casca- 
rilla, boneset, etc.,) may be given and blisters (mustard, 
Spanish flies,) applied along the spine. The remaining 
palsy must be treated on general principles. (See Paral- 
ysis). 

ENZOOTIC MYELITIS LN SHEEP. TKEMBLTNG. HYDKO-EACHITIS. 

The true cause of this affection is unknown, but it has 
prevailed, especially on newly limed land which has un- 
dergone a great temporary increase of fertility. In some 
parts of Scotland its prevalence is circumscribed by the 
windings of a river (Tweed) and without any ostensible 
cause ; or it is fatal on one slope (south) of a hill while 
the opposite escapes ; or again it prevails on the richest 
table-lands. It attacks mainly lambs or sheep under 1|- 
years old and proves very fatal, often destroying the en- 
tire offspring of the year. 

Symptoms vary somewhat. Many lambs appear para- 
lyzed when dropped, either in the hind or fore extremities 
or both, others are attacked a few days or weeks later. 
Sometimes the head or entire body is drawn to one side 
by tonic spasm, in other cases there is spasmodic move- 
ment of the limbs in progression (louping-ill). There is 
usually much apparent stupor and drooping ears, but the 
patient is easily startled and in its efforts to escape will 
tumble headlong. A nervous trembling is frequent and 
there is tenderness or itching of the loins or croup. 

Treatment c f the lambs would be on the same general 



350 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

principles as in inflammation of the spinal cord in other 
animals but will rarely pay. Prevention is to be sought 
by keeping breeding ewes and young sheep from newly 
limed land ; by using none for breeding under two years 
old, and, by close attention to food, water and shelter, to 
secure good health during pregnancy. 

PARALYSIS. LOSS OP SENSATION OR VOLUNTARY MOTION. 

Loss of voluntary motion is known as Motor paralysis, 
loss of sensation as Sensory paralysis or Anaesthesia. Pa- 
ralysis is also peripheral when it occurs from injury to the 
nerves (chilling, tearing, cutting, pressure, inflammation, 
degeneration, etc.,) and central when it arises from injury 
to the great nerve centres, the brain and spinal cord. 
Sensory and motor paralysis may exist independently of 
each other, and loss of sensation on one side of the body 
may coexist with increased sensitiveness on the other. 
An injury to one side of the brain usually paralyzes sen- 
sation or motion on the opposite side of the body. Injury 
to the lower part of one lateral half of the spinal cord, 
paralyzes motion on the same side of the body behind the 
lesion ; while an injury to the upper part of one lateral 
half of the cord paralyzes sensation on the opposite side 
behind the hurt, and in a small adjacent part of the same 
side, while the rest of this side behind the lesion is ren- 
dered more sensitive. Space forbids our following further 
the indications furnished by the nature and seat of the 
paralysis, as to the probable lesions in the central nervous 
system ; this must be left for a larger work. 

GENERAL PARALYSIS. 

Paralysis of the face, trunk and extremities, but with- 
out the implication of the muscles of respiration, may 
arise from pressure on the brain, or as a reflex action from 
distant organs (impacted stomach, constipation, preg- 
nancy, etc.,) and may not be incompatible with life. If 
from section or cutting of the spinal cord in front of the 



Diseases of the Nervous System. 351 

fifth neck-bone (broken neck, pithing,) it is promptly 
fatal by abolishing respiration. 

PARAPLEGIA. PALSY OP THE HIND LIMBS. 

This is a common form of paralysis resulting from 
broken back or loins, or it may be reflex from disordeied 
digestion, etc. (in horses, cattle, dogs). It may also occur 
from tumors or parasites in the spinal cord, from bony 
swellings the result of sprains, from inflammation and 
softening of the cord, and from lolium temulentum (dar- 
nel), and the newly ripened seeds of its allies, lolium 
linicola (flax rye-grass), and lolium perenne (perennial rye- 
grass). The chick vetch, millet, ergot and various blood 
poisons (taurocholic acid, leucin, tyrosin, urea, etc.,) have 
a similar action. 

HEMIPLEGIA. 

This consists in paralysis of one lateral half of the 
body, to the exclusion of the other, usually as the result 
of some disorder of one side of the brain or spinal cord. 
Tt occurs in all animals but less frequently than paraplegia. 

FACIAL PARALYSIS. 

This sometimes occurs from a continuous current of 
cold air striking on the side of the face, but also from 
bruises behind the eye and joint of the jaws, by a badly 
fitting bridle, a collar, or apparatus commonly used for 
breachy horses. Cows suffer from similar injuries from 
stanchions. Finally it may result from disease of the 
brain or middle ear. 

Other local paralyses, such as of the ear, eyelids, lips, 
tongue, larynx, tail, etc., result from corresponding causes. 

Treatment for paralysis. Our first object must be to 
remove the cause, whether this consist in digestive, urinary 
or uterine disorder, in congestion, inflammation, or press- 
ure on the brain or nerves. When a nerve is cut across, 
we must wait for its reunion. When the cause is irre- 



352 The Farmer' 8 Veterinary Adviser. 

movable the paralysis is necessarily incurable. In cases of 
inflammation we must proceed as advised for inflammation 
of the brain or spinal cord. Then apply cold douches and 
friction to the paralyzed part, followed by a blister. Blis- 
ters may also be applied to the neighborhood of the nerve- 
centre presiding over the part. In some cases the application 
of the hot iron lightly is beneficial. A current of electricity 
directed along the course of the nerve or through the para- 
lyzed muscles may be repeated daily with the best results ; 
or nerve-stimulants (nux vomica, strychnia, nitrate of silver, 
etc.) may be given twice daily, commencing with small 
doses and gradually increasing them until twitching or 
slight cramps of the muscles are seen ; then stop their ad- 
ministration for a few days, and resume with half the 
former doses. Never continue when the system is affected, 
as shown by muscular jerking. In some cases of local paral- 
ysis (retina, etc.) excellent results are obtained from sub- 
cutaneous injections of strychnia. 

STOMACH STAGGERS AND ACUTE LEAD POISONESTG. 

These are affections commencing with functional stomach 
and brain disorder, and leading to congestion and inflamma- 
tion of the great nerve-centres, and deserve a special notice. 

The stomach staggers of horses and cattle usually arise 
from eating particular articles of food, such as the different 
forms of rye-grass, millet, vetches, tares, etc., when ripen- 
ing and not yet cured. A poisonous principle exists, which, 
in the case of the Lolium temulentum, has been separated as 
an extract, and administered with fatal effects to horses, 
cattle and dogs. It acts by paralyzing the stomach and 
congesting the brain. Cattle will suffer similarly from the 
very rich vegetation of spring, from the dry, irritating fibrous 
grass mixed with the aftermath, or from a sudden change 
from soft to hard water. In Southern Kansas, Indian Ter- 
ritory, and New Mexico, the " loco " plant produces a simi- 
lar nervous disorder with an increasing fondness for the 
plant, and finally death. 



Diseases of the Nervous System. 353 

Symptoms. The first effect is drowsiness, the horse be- 
ing sluggish at work and falling asleep while eating or drink- 
ing, or the ox leaving his fellows and lying down with his 
head on his flank, his eyelids semi-closed and his pupils 
dilated. The bowels continue to move, passing undigested 
matter and wind, the abdomen is full and the seat of fre- 
quent rumbling, and the appetite is retained, so that the 
torpid stomach is still further over-distended. This state 
of things may continue for several days, and is followed by 
imperfect control over the limbs, hind or fore, so that the 
subject sways unsteadily in walking, and leans his head on 
the manger and his quarters on the stall, when in the stable. 
Sometimes paraplegia is the first sign, drowsiness being ab- 
sent throughout. The drowsiness in time gives place to 
restless and involuntary actions, jerking of the head, champ- 
ing of the jaws, pushing the head against the wall, move- 
ments of the limbs, walking in a circle or straight forward 
regardless of obstacles, springing or dashing violently about, 
convulsions, etc. These periods of violence or delirium oc- 
cur in paroxysms, leaving intervals of comparative, though 
not absolute, quiet and stupor. If not carefully secured 
the animals often kill themselves during one of these parox- 
ysms. The pulse and breathing are slow at first, but accel- 
erated in the later stages. 

Acute lead poisoning in cattle results from eating red or 
white paint (often the refuse of paint-pots, which has lain 
for years in the soil), sheet lead, spent bullets, etc., or from 
drinking from dishes which have held sugar of lead, or of 
soft water that has run through leaden pipes or stood in 
leaden cisterns. The symptoms are usually indistinguish- 
able from those above described, the preliminary dullness 
and drowsiness merging into active delirium, with reckless 
dashing about and violent bellowing. 

Treatment in all cases consists in stopping the ingestion 
of the poison and carrying off from the bowels any that 
still remains there. Double the usual amount of purga- 
tive medicine must be given, with stimulants, their action 

23 



354 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

favored by injections and the brain symptoms kept in 
check by applying cold water or ice to the head, as well as 
by bromide of potassium. In lead poisoning sulphate of 
magnesia or soda are the appropriate purgatives, and \ 
oz. sulphuric acid should also be given in two pints of 
water to precipitate in an insoluble form any lead that 
may still be retained. If later there is a suspicion of lead 
being retained in the system give iodide of potassium. 
Should paralysis persist when the active symptoms have 
passed away, treat that on general principles. 

SUN-STROKE. 

This is especially common in horses in the hot months 
and in the large cities, but is seen in cattle and sheep as 
well, when exposed to the full glare of the sun. Among 
the causes which co-operate in its production may be 
mentioned foul, badly aired stables, tight collars or girths, 
overwork in hot weather, heavy milking in cows, obesity, 
poor, unwholesome food, and indeed any health-deterio- 
-ating condition. Horses are usually attacked while being 
speeded, or at heavy draught work, in a collar, and ex- 
posed to the direct and reflected rays of the sun, as in 
a valley, on a hillside or in the streets of a city. 

Symptoms. Sometimes without any observed premoni- 
tory sign the horse will suddenly stop in harness, droop 
his head, prop himself out on all four limbs, pant vio- 
lently, fall, and after some convulsive movements, die in a 
state of coma, marked by stertorous breathing. In other 
cases the attack is slower, the horse flags in gait, responds 
very imperfectly, if at all, when urged, hangs on the bit, 
may perspire freely, or have a dry burning surface, and 
becomes unsteady on his limbs. If still urged he falls, 
but if allowed will stand with legs extended, head low 
and stretched out, nostrils dilated, superficial veins 
distended, eyes protruded and red, pupils contracted, 
breathing rapid and wheezing or deep and stertorous, the 
pulse quick and weak, and the heart-beats tumultuous 



Diseases of the Nervous System. 



ouj 



This is followed by prostration, a state of unconsciousness, 
palsy or convulsions and death. If recovery ensues it is 
followed by dullness, uncertain movements of the limbs, 
drowsiness or other sign of brain disease. 

Treatment. Douche the head and neck with cold water. 
and make the same application to the whole body, unless 
the weakness of the patient forbids this. Throw stimula- 
ting injections into the rectum (ammonia, or oil of turpen- 
tine and oil). If the convulsions are aggravated by the 
douche use injections of chloral-hydrate instead. Apply 
frictions and mustard embrocations to the limbs and the 
sides of the neck, especially when unconsciousness and 
coma come on. Improvement may be expected when the 
pupils dilate, and above all when consciousness returns. 
A failing pulse should be met with stimulants by the 
mouth and rectum. To prevent sun-stroke much may be 
done by keeping in vigorous health, avoiding ill-aired 
stables, using breast-straps in place of collars, and wear- 
ing a sun-shade and a small wet sponge on the top of the 
head. 

parasites in the BRAIN. See Parasites. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
SKIN DISEASES. 

Classification. General Causes and Treatment. Congestion of the skin, 
Chafing, Chilling, Irritants, Sun's Rays. Congestion with Pimples, Papules. 
Inflammation with Blisters, Vesicles. Inflammation with Pustules. Inflam- 
mation of horses' heels, Swelled Legs, Cracked Heels, Grease, Grapes, 
Scratches. Inflammation of the skin with nodular swellings, Tubercles, 
Surfeit, Urticaria. Scaly skin disease, Pityriasis, Mallenders, Sallenders, 
Scratches. Boils, Furuncles. Nervous irritation of the skin, Neurosis, 
Prurigo. Warts. Callosities, Black-pigment Tumors. Epithelial Cancer. 
Parasitic skin diseases. Common Ringworm. Tinea Tonsurans. Honey- 
comb Ringworm, Favus. Diffuse Baldness, Tinea Decalvans, Parasitic 
Pityriasis. Parasitic Grease. Contagious Foot-rot. Mange. Scab. Itch. 
Scabies, Acariasis. Ticks. Ixodes. Warbles, Larva of the Gadfly. At- 
tacks of Flies, Maggots. Sheep-tick. Melophagus Ovinus. Fleas. Lice. 
Erysipelas. Wounds — cut, punctured, bruised, torn, poisoned. Burns. 
Scalds. 

Skin Diseases will be considered under the following 
heads : 

1. Diseases due to general causes and embracing all the 
grades of inflammatory action : — congestion — a red pointed 
eruption (papules) — a similar eruption with minute blis- 
ters (vesicles)— the formation of larger hemispherical blis- 
ters (bullae) — the formation of pus in these vesicles (pust- 
ules) — the formation of round nodular transient swellings 
(tubercles) — the excessive production of scales or dan- 
druff (squamous) — pustules with circumscribed sloughing 
of the deeper layers of the skin (boils). 

2. Diseases manifested by deranged sensation — Neurosis. 

3. Diseased growths — warts — callosities — epithelial can- 
cer, etc. 



Skin Diseases. 357 



4.* Parasitic diseases, — vegetable and animal. 

5. Diseases connected with a specific poison — different 
forms of variola (pox) — measles — scarlatina — erysipelas 
— malignant pustule, etc. 

6. Wounds. Burns. Scalds. 

General causes. These are exceedingly varied. Many 
sases are the result of simple local irritation, as chafing, 
radiating heat, cold and wet, chemical and mechanical irri- 
tants, or the presence on the skin of parasitic plants or 
animals. A large class is due, however, to disorders of 
internal organs with which the skin is in sympathy, or 
that have failed to transform or throw off elements that 
prove cutaneous irritants by their presence in the blood, 
or when being excreted abnormally through the skin. 
Disorder of the liver, stomach, bowels, kidneys and lungs, 
are especially apt to act in this way. Sometimes skin 
disease is a mere symptom of general ill-health. 

General treatment. The first object is to discover and 
remove the cause ; then if the disease is of an inflamma- 
tory nature and acute, soothing agents may be applied to 
the irritated skin — fomentations with tepid water, oxide 
of zinc powder or ointment, starch, lycopodium, spermaceti 
and almond-oil, solutions of sugar of lead, sulphate of zinc, 
or carbolic acid, collodion, etc. Give internally cooling lax- 
atives (sulphate of soda, tartrates or citrates of soda or 
potash,) and diuretics (acetate of potassa or ammonia, 
carbonate of potassa or soda). In weak states tonics are 
often wanted whereas in plethoric subjects depletion is 
equally essential. A cool, clean, airy stable and cleanli- 
ness of the skin are all-important. 

If the disease is not so recent or the acute symptoms 
have been subdued, a more stimulating class of local ap- 
plications are in order : ointments of iodine, sulphur, 
mercury, nitrate of mercury, tar, oil of tar, oil of turpen- 
tine, oil of cade, etc., may be used. Supersedents too 
may be given internally : sulphur, antimony, arsenic, mer- 
cury, Dunovan's solution, are examples. 



358 The Farmer's Veterinary Advisv 
. / 

CONGESTION OF THE SKIN. 

Simple redness, heat and tenderness with no dark color 
nor eruption. This may coexist with all the different 
forms of inflammatory eruption according to the degree 
of irritation at different points. 

It occurs : From chafing, in the axilla, between the 
thighs, in the heels or under the harness in hot weather ; 
from chills after being wet, in the heels of horses and on the 
teats of cows exposed to wet in winter ; from hardened mud 
in the space between the hoofs in cattle, sheep and pigs ; 
and from the sun's rays in white-faced or white-limbed 
animals. 

Treatment. If the surface is only tender, wash clean, 
and apply a solution of table salt, sugar of lead Q- oz. to 
1 qt.) or a little camphorated spirit. If the surface is 
abraded (raw) use bland powders (oxide of zinc, starch, 
lycopodium,) wool, collodion, glycerine 1 oz. aloes 20 
grs., or, if it can be kept covered, sulphurous acid solution 
and glycerine (equal parts), laxatives, diuretics or tonics 
must be used according to the indications. It is all- 
important to avoid further irritation. Light, well-fitting 
harness must be used, and the stuffing taken out and the 
part beaten down where necessary, to avoid pressure on a 
sore. Zinc fittings to the top of the collar are often very 
serviceable. So too, must exposure of affected heels to 
damp or mud, and the wetting of teats in milking, be care- 
fully avoided. Lotion, sugar of lead, opium, camphor. 

CONGESTION WITH SMALL CONICAL PIMPLES. PAPULES. 

In this case there is an eruption of finely-pointed pim- 
ples without any watery exudation or blister. It is usually 
itchy and even painful, and by reason of rubbing may go 
on to exudation with great thickening of the skin, bleeding, 
scabs and open sores. Horses, especially, suffer in spring 
and autumn at the time of shedding the coat, the eruption 
often confining itself to the neck, shoulders and lirubs. 
On turning back the 1 air on parts which are itchy or sore, 



Skin Diseases. 85'J 



but that have not suffered from rubbing, the nature of the 
eruption will be seen, especially if a slightly magnifying 
glass be used. The affection usually gives way readily 
under the use of weak alkaline washes (carbonate of soda 
1 dr., water 1 pint,) or soap-suds, a restricted laxative 
diet and gentle laxatives. 

INFLAM MA TION WITH VESICLES. 

In this form of skin disease papules are crowned with 
little blisters, so small and pointed as to require a mag- 
nifying glass to make them out distinctly (eczema), or as 
large as a small pea and rounded (herpes, bullae). These 
forms are common in horses and dogs, and to a less extent 
in ruminants, especially in connection with disorders of 
digestion. Highly stimulating food, clipping and hot 
weather are particularly favorable to their development. 
Boiled food, diseased potatoes, green food or any change 
of diet may cause them. One form of this affection is 
induced by a too extensive use of mercury to the skin. 
Cattle suffer from eating the refuse of distilleries and 
gardens, garbage from kitchens, etc. ; sheep are attacked 
after exposure to cold rains. Old horses suffer from an 
inveterate form in connection with bad food and want of 
grooming and wholesome stabling. In dogs too, it be- 
comes inveterate and chronic, the whole skin being de- 
nuded of hair and of a bright scarlet, with the character- 
istic eruption mixed with cracks, sores and scabs (red 
mange). In the milder forms, dogs suffer mainly inside 
the thighs or on the scrotum; horses suffer under the 
harness and especially at the root of the mane and under 
the saddle, but the eruption may spread over the whole 
body ; cattle suffer on the limbs, especially the hind, but 
not exclusively so. 

The other eruptions are often mingled with the vesicles, 
the hairs become bristly, and as the skin is broken by 
rubbing, a bloody or straw-colored exudation concretes 
in scabs and mats the hair together, while elsewhere ex- 
tensive raw sores appear. 



360 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

Treatment. Give a saline or oleaginous laxative, and 
follow up with acetate of potassa or other alkaline agents 
in the drinking water. If there are signs of disordered 
liver give small doses of podophyllin to keep the bowels 
slightly relaxed; if debility, bitter tonics. A restricted 
non-stimulating diet, (herbivora, mashes, roots, etc.; car« 
nivora, bread and milk, oatmeal porridge, etc.,) pure air, 
cleanliness and skin washes of carbonate of soda or 
potassa containing a few drops of carbolic acid will prove 
valuable. In dogs this last agent should be omitted. 

In all forms of chronic and inveterate eczema the scabs 
should be soaked in oil for a few hours and removed by 
washing, after which more stimulating applications may 
be resorted to : — ointments of sulphur, iodine, iodide 
of sulphur, sulphuret of potassium, mercury, nitrate of 
mercury, etc., with or without alkalies. In some cases a 
few drops of oil of vitriol in a quart of water, will much 
relieve the itching and pain. In others the same end 
must be sought by adding prussic acid or cyanide of 
potassium in small amount, great care being taken to 
prevent the patient from licking it. Internally, use su- 
persedeas — arsenic, with or without iodide and bromide 
of potassium ; or small doses of Dunovan's solution may 
be resorted to in bad cases. 

INFLAMMATION WITH PUSTULES. 

This differs from vesicles in this, that the elevations on 
the skin have the scarfskin raised by the formation below 
it of a white, purulent matter, in place of clear liquid. 
The prominent forms are those with large pustules (ec- 
thyma), and those with small (impetigo). The hair stands 
erect, and scabs form on the surface covering the sores, 
especially after rubbing. Even if not rubbed they dry up 
in scabs which soon fall off. 

Horses suffer mainly at the root of the mane, on the 
neck, the rump, and on the lips and face, especially H 
white; cattle and sheep, especially the young, are at- 



Skin Diseases. 3G1 



tacked on the lips and other delicate parts of the skin 
(vulva, etc.,) and pigs and dogs on any part of the body. 

Causes. It is often chargeable on some disorder of 
digestion as the result of unwholesome food or a sudden 
change of food, as from dry to green, or from one kind 
of pasturage to another. In young animals (foals, calves, 
lambs, kids, pigs,) it appears to be an occasional result of 
heated or otherwise unwholesome milk. Vetches affected 
with honey-dew have produced it in white horses or in 
white spots of those of other colors ; and buckwheat has 
affected white sheep, pigs, goats, etc., in the same way. 
It may, however, arise from habitual exposure to cold and 
wet, local irritation, as from rubbing, etc., or from dis- 
order of other internal organs. 

Treatment consists in softening the crusts with oil, 
washing them off with soap-suds, and applying soothing 
or gently astringent agents to the part (spermaceti and 
olive-oil, benzoated oxide of zinc ointment, lime-water, 
sugar of lead lotions, etc.) When it attacks the root of 
the mane cut off the hair, and if the pain is excessive 
foment or poultice until the eruption comes to a head when 
some of the above agents may be applied. "When the 
pustules have burst and show little tendency to healing, 
this may often be hastened by touching the sores with a 
pointed stick of lunar caustic, or a weak solution of this 
agent (2 grs. to 1 oz. water) may be lightly painted over 
the part. The internal treatment consists in the adminis- 
tration of laxatives followed by bitters (gentian, quassia, 
boneset, cascarilla, willow bark, etc.,) and diuretics. In 
obstinate or long-standing cases the same treatment may 
be followed as in chronic eczema. 

INFLAMMATION OP THE HEELS IN HORSES. GREASE. 

The skin in the region of the heel is so vascular and so 
abundantly provided with oil-glands, and is so frequently 
exposed to irritants, wet, cold, mud, filth, etc., that a special 
notice of its inflammatory condition seems demanded 



303 The Farmers Veterinary Adviser. 

The causes are a lymphatic constitution, with a tendency to 
stocking of the legs ; a weak circulation, diseased heart, 
liver or kidneys, with swelled legs ; washing the heels with 
caustic soap ; leaving them wet and muddy when put in 
the stall ; currents of cool air striking on the heels ■ 
irritant fumes from accumulated dung and urine ; soaking 
of the heels in putrid pools in the straw-yard ; standing in 
snow, or in the slush of melting snow ; and besides, any 
of the constitutional causes of other skin diseases. To 
these might be added horse-pox, foot-mange, and an erup- 
tion associated with a vegetable parasite, but we must leave 
these to be considered with specific and parasitic diseases. 

Symptoms. We find all grades of inflammation in the 
heel : 1st, Simple swelling with dry heat, tenderness and 
great lameness from inability to stretch the skin and 
bring the heel to the ground : 2d, Transverse cracks or 
chaps more or less extensive : 3d, A pinkish- white foetid 
discharge from the surface with oftentimes some modera- 
tion of the lameness : 4th, The eruption of pustules of 
variable size : 5th, The formation of fungous growths 
(grapes), over the affected surface, of a size from a pea to 
a cherry, red, angry and covered with a foetid discharge. 
This last form often invades the frog constituting canker. 
The same occurs in sheep as the result of long continued 
irritation to the skin of the coronet, and is the worst form 
of non-contagious foot-rot. 6th, A sixth form of the affec- 
tion {scratches) is much more common in our light Ameri- 
can horse, exposed in the deep mud of spring, and con- 
sists in minute excoriations, becoming covered with thin 
scabs which remain tender and troublesome for an in- 
definite length of time. 

Treatment. The prime essential is to avoid the cause, 
whether exposure to filth, cold, wet, local irritants, low 
condition, or disorder of some internal organ or function. 
If the inflammation runs high a cooling laxative (Glauber 
salts, aloes,) and mild diuretics (nitre, iodide of potassium,) 
should be given, unless contra-indicated by low condition 



Skin Diseases. 3G3 



or debility. Tonics (iodide of iron) should be conjoined 
with gentle diuretics for weak patients, and the food should 
be cooling (in part green or roots). Gentle pressure from 
a bandage evenly applied from the foot up, is beneficial. 

In simple inflammation, without eruption or discharge, 
apply cloths wet with a weak solution of sugar of lead or 
other astringent, and in winter cover these with a dry 
bandage to prevent freezing. Or a poultice may be ap- 
plied with a little sugar of lead lotion on the surface. 

When cracks have appeared, apply a similar lotion with 
the addition of a few drops of carbolic acid or grains of 
chloral-hydrate (enough to give it an odor) ; or sulphurous 
acid solution, water and glycerine in equal proportions, 
covering promptly and perfectly with a bandage ; or, 
glycerine and aloes, etc. 

La case of discharge or pustules the lotion may be 
made with chloride of zinc or lime in place of sugar of 
lead, or finely powdered charcoal may be sprinkled over 
the poultice ; carbolic acid or chloral will be equally in 
place. 

When fungous growths appear more active measures 
are demanded. Strong carbolic acid may be applied to 
them individually, or better, pledgets of tow, saturated 
with tincture of the muriate of iron, should be bound on 
by a tight bandage extending from the hoof up. Or the 
growths may be snipped off with scissors and the muriate 
of iron applied ; or they may be individually strangled by 
a stout thread tied round their necks, or cut off with the 
sharp edge of a red-hot blacksmith's shovel, a cool one 
being held beneath to protect the skin. Then apply any 
one of the antiseptics above mentioned. 

Scratches are among the most obstinate forms of the 
affection because not severe enough to demand the seclu- 
sion of the horse from wet, mud and snow. In feeding 
the subjects of this affection avoid all buckwheat, maize or 
other heating agents, and if it proves obstinate resort to 
the various internal remedies advised for chronic eczema 



3G4 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

Locally use benzoated oxide of zinc ; glycerine and aloes j 
camphorated spirit and chloral; the same with a few 
drops of tincture of chloride of iron, etc. When irritation 
subsides and the scales drop off, leaving a healthy-looking 
surface, smear with a bland ointment (spermaceti and 
almond-oil). 

CUTANEOUS INFLAMMATION WITH NODULAK SWELLINGS. 

TUBEBCULES. 

The most remarkable example of this is what is known 
to horsemen as surfeit, by veterinarians as urticaria. It 
occurs in spring and autumn in horses, cattle and pigs, 
and is at once connected with moulting and sudden changes 
of food or of weather. With some fever, there appear on 
different parts of the body swellings varying in size from 
a pea to a walnut, and often running together so as to 
form extensive patches, which will close the nostrils, eye- 
lids or lips, and put a stop to feeding or even threaten 
suffocation. There is little pain or tenderness and the 
swellings are very transient, appearing and disappearing 
on different parts at short intervals. 

Treatment consists in clearing out the bowels by a pur- 
gative (horse, aloes ; ox, salts ; pig, oil or jalap,) and fol- 
lowing this up with bitters (gentian, etc.,) and diuretics 
(nitre, carbonates of soda and potassa). 

SCALY SKIN AFFECTIONS. PITYEIASIS. 

These are exemplified in the scurfy, scaly affections 
which appear in the bend of the knee (mallenders) and 
hock (sallenders) and on the lower parts of the limbs, by 
scratches, and by a scaly exfoliation and shedding of hair 
of the mane and face of old horses, and of different parts 
of the body in cattle. Some of these like mallenders, sal- 
lenders and scratches may commence as papules or vesicles, 
while the scaly affection of the face is often connected 
with a vegetable growth, but this form is distinguished by 
extreme tenacity, and a gradual progress from its point of 



Skin Diseases. 365 



origin ; that which is dependent on constitutional causes 
is more diffused. They depend on the general causes of 
skin diseases ; — heating, unsuitable diet, sudden changes, 
imperfect grooming, heats of summer, disorders of the 
lungs, bowels, liver or kidneys, on oxalic acid in the blood, 
and some constitutional causes. Beside the scurfiness 
and loss of hair, the itching is often so extreme as to ren- 
der the subject almost unmanageable, and useless for 
work. 

Treatment. A moderate laxative diet consisting in part 
of roots (carrots and turnips,) the free administration of 
alkalies (carbonate of potassa or soda, etc.,) and if still 
inveterate, a prolonged course of arsenic will be requisite. 
Locally use mercurial ointment or, if extensive, sulphur or 
tar ointment, etc. 

BOILS. FURUNCLES. 

These are too well known to need description. They 
consist in circumscribed inflammation of the deep layers 
of the skin, with pustule and sloughing of a limited part of 
the fibrous tissue. They are not uncommon on the legs of 
horses, and if a number appear in succession are a source 
of great trouble. 

Treatment. While still a simple inflamed nodule they 
may often be arrested by incising crucially with a sharp 
knife and applying cold water bandages. Or apply a 
poultice or thick wet cloth to bring quickly to a head. If 
the resulting sore is indolent or unhealthy touch with ni- 
trate of silver. The free internal use of alkalies (carbonate 
of soda) sometimes checks their production. 

NERVOUS IRRITATION OF THE SKIN. NEUROSIS. PRURIGO. 

This is often seen in horses that are overfed on grain 
(especially the more stimulating varieties) and hay, and 
that have close, unwholesome stables. Hot weather is 
also a cause. Though occasionally associated with pim- 
ples or even vesicles, the irritation is found to be equally 



366 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

severe on parts devoid of eruption, yet the integument 
tends to become thickened and rigid as the disease per- 
sists. The irritation may be slight or so severe that the 
harness cannot be kept on. It must not be confounded 
with rubbing of the tail from pin-worms. 

Treatment. Purge, put on restricted diet, with roots 
wash the skin with soap and water, and apply water 
slightly soured with oil of vitriol. If this, with carbonate 
of soda internally, fails to cure, a long course of arsenic is 
demanded. 

WARTS. CALLOSITIES. CANCER. BLACK PIGMENT TUMORS. 

Warts are to be removed by scissors and the part burned 
with some caustic (lunar caustic if near the eye, butter of 
antimony, blue-stone, chloride of zinc, etc., elsewhere). 
Or they may be destroyed by tying a thread tightly round 
the neck of each, or by the use of the hot iron. 

Callosities are common under the saddle (sitfasts). A 
circumscribed portion of skin, the seat of a former chafe, 
has become thickened and indurated to almost horny con- 
sistency. The skin around the edges is inflamed, raw 
and angry. It can usually be loosened by a poultice, so 
as to be easily removed by a sharp knife, after which it is 
to be treated as a common sore. 

Black Pigment Tumors (Melanosis) are exceedingly 
common in gray and white horses, attacking the black 
parts of the skin (anus, vulva, udder, sheath, lips, eyelids, 
etc.,) and though sometimes cancerous are often quite 
harmless, and should always be removed with the knife. 

Epithelial Cancer is not common in the lower animals 
but is seen in the lips of horses and cats. Here again the 
knife is the best remedy. 

PARASITIC DISEASES OF THE SKIN. 
COMMON RINGWORM. TINEA TONSURANS. 

This is common in horses, cattle, dogs and cats, as well 
as in man, and is readily transmitted from one to the 



Shin Diseases. 367 



other. It is especially common in winter or spring, and 
occurs as round bald spots on the face or elsewhere 
covered with white scales, and surrounded by a ring of 
bristly, broken hairs, or split hairs with scabs around the 
roots and some eruption on the skin. Soon this ring of 
broken hairs is shed and a wider bristly ring is formed. 
Among the naked eye characters the breaking and splitting 
of hairs in the ring, and the perfect baldness of the central 

Fig. 42. 




Fig. 42 — Hairs with spores of Trichophyton Tonsurans. From the horse. 
— Megnin. 

part are the most significant. Chloroform bleaches the 
affected hairs, while the sound ones are unaffected. The 
microscopic appearances are the presence in the hairs and 
hair follicles of a vegetable parasite (trichophyton tonsu- 
rans.) 

Treatment. Shave the hairs from the affected part, or 
better, pull them out with a pair of pincers and paint with 
tincture of iodine, or a solution of corrosive sublimate (40 
grains to 1 pt. of water), or of bisulphite of soda (|- oz. to 
lpt.) 

HONEY-COMB RINGWORM. FAVUS. 

Common in cattle, dogs, cats, rabbits and chickens, as well 
as in children (scald-head). It shows the same general ap- 
pearance of baldness advancing from a centre, which is 
described above, but a cup-shaped yellowish scab results 
which has obtained for it the name. The parasite (Aclio- 
rion Schonleini) appears to be but another form of the 
fungus of ringworm affected by its conditions of growth 
and especially by the weak or unhealthy condition of the 
bost. Treat as for common ringworm. 



The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 
Fig. 43. 



c=? 



^ 



^o^;> 




Fig- 43 — Hair with spores of Achorion Sch3nleini, from the horse. — Megnin 
DIFFUSE BALDNESS (TINEA DECALVANS). PARASITIC PITYRIASIS 

Two other forms are seen in the horse, one attacking 
any part of the body, and recognized by the agglutination 
of five or six hairs together in a white crust, and the other 
attacking the heads of old horses, and characterized mainly 
by the scurfy product. Both are exceedingly inveterate, 
though not attended with excessive itching, and demand 
the persistent use of tincture of iodine or corrosive sub- 
limate lotions in order to effect a cure. 

Fig. 4A. 




Fig. 44 — Microsporon Adouinii from Parasitic Pityriasis in the horse. — 
Megnin. 

In all those cases the harness, brushes, combs and wood- 
work must be washed with a solution of caustic potassa or 
soda, and then wet with iodine ointment or a solution of 
corrosive sublimate, otherwise all treatment may be fruit- 
less. Horse blankets should be boiled for a length of 
time. 



Skin Diseases. 360 



PARASITIC GREASE. CONTAGIOUS FOOT-ROT IN SHEEP. 

In inflammation of the horse's heel, attended with 
fungus-like growths {grapes), a vegetable growth is often 
present and seems to be a main cause of the disease. 
The contagious foot-rot in sheep presents the same appear- 
ance of the skin, and is presumably due to a similar para- 
site. With or without an abrasion, the matter from a 
diseased foot produces in the healthy one swelling, excori- 
ation and fungous growths round the top of the hoof, as 
well as an excessive growth, softening and loss of cohesion 
of the horny elements below. 

Fig. 45. 




/ig. 45 — Oidium Batracosis from parasitic grease. — Megnin. 

Treatment consists in laying bare the diseased surface, 
and applying active caustics and parasiticides. Pare the 
horn to the quick and apply tow soaked in tincture of 
muriate of iron, butter of antimony, solution of blue-stone 
or nitrate of silver, bind up firmly, and repeat the dressing 
daily. All overgrown horn must be carefully removed, 
and means taken to prevent irritation from dried mud, etc. 

MANGE. SCAB. ITCH. SCABIES. ACARIASIS. 

These names among others are given to diseases of the 
skin caused by acari. Of parasitic acari there are three 
principal species : Sarcoptes, which burrow in canals in the 
scarfskin and are difficult to find and eradicate, and derma- 
tophagus and dermatocoptis which live on the surface or 
among the scabs and are more easily disposed of. Another 

24 



S70 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



Fig. 46. 




Fig. 48. 




Fig. 50. 





Fig. 51. 




Fig. 46 — Sarcoptes Equi. Female. Fig. 47— Dermatophagus Equi. Female. 
Fig. 48 — Dermatocoptes Equi. Female. Fig. 49 — Dermanyssus. (Hen 
louse.) Fig. <o — Gamasus of Fodder. Fig. 51 — Demodex. 



Skin Diseases. 371 



species — demodex — inhabits the sebaceous glands of the 
skin in sheep and dog and causes much irritation with 
acne-like eruption. Among acari occasionally parasitic 
may be mentioned : the dermanyssus (misnamed hen louse), 
the gamasus of musty hay, and the leptus (misnamed jigger 
in the Western States), all excepting the last living on the 
surface and easily discovered. Lastly a tyroglyph is acci- 
dentally parasitic on all domestic animals. 

Of the sarcoptes there is one species lives on the horse, 
which will temporarily inhabit the skin of man ; a second 
is peculiar to the goat ; a third is common to dogs and 
swine, a fourth to cats and rabbits and a fifth to chickens 
horses and foxes. 

One species of dermatophagus lives on the heels and legs 
of horses, another on the tail, neck, etc., of cattle, and a 
third on the pastern, limbs, and less frequently the trunk, 
of sheep. 

Of dermatocoptes there is also a particular species for 
each of these animals — horse, ox and sheep — though usu- 
ally confounded with each other. These are the most 
common causes of mange and from their non-burrowing 
habits are most easily disposed of. 

Accessory causes. Though the reception of the acarus 
is the one essential cause of mange, yet others conduce to 
its speedy diffusion — as poor condition, filth and warm 
seasons. Some acari, like the dermatophagi, may even 
seem to suspend operations in winter and cause little or 
no trouble until the following spring. 

Symptoms. We must state these in general terms, 
throwing the whole class into one group. There is intense 
uncontrollable itching, aggravated by hot weather or build- 
ings, and by perspiration. If the affected part is scratched 
the animal shows his gratification by moving his body as 
if rubbing, and especially (in horses) by a nibbling move- 
ment of the lips. In sheep the wool is torn off, and white 
tufts hang on the dark surface of the fleece. The skin is 
thickened and rendered rigid by exudation into its sub- 



372 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

stance, as well as by the accumulation of crusts on the 
surface. * In fine skins, like that of the sheep, there is a 
distinct papular eruption, and in all there are excoriations 
and even deep sores and ulcers from the incessant and 
desperate rubbing. The bare patches are less absolutely 
bo than in ringworm, for hairs still adhere at intervals 
and though the hairs may be broken they show less brit- 
tleness or tendency to split up. But the one reliable sign 
is the presence of the acarus, which may often be rec- 
ognized by the naked eye when a little of the scurf is 
placed on a plate of glass and closely watched. The 
scabs will be seen to move and a little observation will 
enable one to detect the almost invisible insect. A low 
magnifying power is a great help. To find the sarcoptes 
it may be necessary to expose the skin to the warm rays 
of the sun, to detach a crust and tie it for twelve hours on 
the skin of the arm, when the acarus will be found in the 
centre of a pale red papule and may be removed with a 
needle. 

The dermanyssus may not be found on the skin unless 
the subject is examined in the stable at night. They are 
large and easily detected when bright crimson, from being 
gorged with blood. There is always the suspicious prox- 
imity of chickens or their dung, the latter swarming with 
gray acari. 

The demodex living in the hair follicles of dogs, causes 
loss of hair and prominent red nodules (acne) while the 
sebaceous matter squeezed from the follicles contain spec- 
imens of the acarus. 

The sarcoptes of chickens attacks the comb, wattles and 
feet, causing great irritation. 

Treatment is local, though nourishing food, cool clear 
air, clean dry buildings, and the avoidance of crowding or 
exertion are important auxiliaries. By soap-suds, pre- 
ceded if necessary by oil, break up and remove the scabs 
and crusts ; then apply thoroughly with a brush, oil of tai 
I oz. t whale-oil 20 oz., or £ lb. each of tar and sulphur, 



Skin Diseases. 373 



and 1 lb. each of soap and alcohol. For sheep with heavy 
fleeces baths are very efficient. The following example 
will neither stain the wool nor materially endanger the 
sheep. Tobacco 16 lbs., oil of tar 3 pints, soda ash 20 
lbs., soft soap 4 lbs., water 50 gallons : Boil the tobacco 
and dissolve the other agents in a few gallons of boiling 
water, then add water to make up to fifty gallons, retain- 
ing a temperature of about 70° Fah. This will suffice for 
50 sheep Each sheep is kept in the bath three minutes, 
two men meanwhile breaking up the scabs and working 
the liquid into all parts of the skin. When taken out he 
is laid on a sloping drainer and the liquid squeezed out of 
y*e wool and allowed to flow back into the bath. A second 



Fig. 52. 




Fig. 52 — Ox-Tick.— Verrill. 

and even a third bath may be necessary in inveterate 
cases. For newly shorn sheep oily applications are better, 
being less liable to be washed off by rains. One part of 
oil of tar to 40 parts castor-oil or lard will usually suffice, 
but sulphur may be added if desired. The common use 
of mineral poisons, and especially the compounds of mer- 
cury for sheep dips, must be strongly deprecated. 

In all cases an essential part of the treatment is to dress 
with similar agents, or with a strong solution of caustic 
potassa, all harness, brushes, combs and wood-work, and 
to subject blankets to prolonged boiling. In pastures, 
dress every rubbing post, tree, stump, stone, or woodeu 
fence, or change the field. 



374 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

TICKS. IXODES. 

These are common on stock in some parts of the coun- 
try and may be picked off or dressings applied as for 
acari. 

LAEVA OF GADFLY. WARBLES. 

These may be found in little rounded tumors the size 
of hazel-nuts, on the backs of cattle in winter and spring, 
each tumor having a hole in the centre through which the 
grub may be seen or extracted. A second species attacks 
sheep as well as cattle, while a number of others in dif- 
ferent countries, but especially in the tropics, live in the 
skin of man and a variety of animals. Where gadflies 
Fig. 53. Fig. 54. 





Fig» 53 — CEstrus Bovis. 

Gadfly of ox. — Clark. Fig. 54 — Larva of same. Warble. 

abound, animals are greatly terrified and injured by their 
attacks. The best treatment is to examine all cattle in 
spring and squeeze out and destroy the grubs found in 
their backs, enlarging the openings with a knife when 
necessary. This cuts off the supply of flies for the coming 
year and a universal practice of this might be expected to 
kill them out. 

ATTACKS OF FLIES (DLPTEKA). MAGGOTS. 

The attacks of flies are often very troublesome and even 
fatal to stock. Many agents such as oil, infusions of wal- 
nut leaves, rue or wormwood, are used to drive them off 
but with only partial success. To protect the heads of 
sheep a mixture of camphor, turpentine and asafcetida is 
very effectual. 



Skin Diseases. 375 



Sheep suffer much in some localities from the larva of 
the blowfly, laid on any damp or dirty part of the skin, as 
on the tails and thighs when scouring. In such neighbor- 
hoods the existence during summer or autumn of a dark 
wet spot on the skin, of a white tuft of wool, or of wriggling 
of the tail will demand immediate attention. 

Treatment. Clip off the wool and filth, pick off all 
maggots and apply oil of turpentine or of tar 5 oz., 
camphor 1 dr., asafoetida \ dr. ; dilute carbolic acid or 
kerosene may be used in the absence of anything else. 
To prevent the attacks use the sheep dip advised for scab, 
or cut off the dirty wool and apply carbolic acid 1 part, 
water 50 parts. 

SHEEP-TICK. HIPPOBOSCA (MELOPHAGUS) OVLNA. 

This is a dipterous insect degraded by the non-develop- 
ment of its wings. It is best met by the dips advised for 

Fig. 55. 




Fig. 55 — Sheep-Tick with egg. Magnified. 

scab. It is especially important to dip lambs, after affected 
ewes have been shorn, as the insects migrate to the young 
where they find more wool to shelter them. 

FLEAS. 

These, like the hippoboscidse, are wingless diptera. We 
have a variety each for the dog, cat, hen and dove, and in 
tropical America the pulex penetrans or Chigoe which 
burrows under the skin and there lays its eggs to be 
hatched out in the flesh. Persian Insect powder is one of 



376 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

the best agents to dust over the animals as well as over 
carpets, rugs, etc., on which they have lain ; or wash with 
the yolks of eggs and a teaspoonful of oil of turpentine to 
each egg ; or a mixture of an ounce of oil of anise-seed and 
ten ounces olive-oil may be rubbed over the body and 
washed off with soap six hours later. Sprinkle the soil 

Fig. 56. 




Fig. 56 — Cat Flea. Enlarged. — Verrill. 

where the animals roll with quicklime, carbolic acid, or 
petroleum ; deluge kennels and roosts with boiling water 
and afterward paint the cracks with oil of turpentine ; dip 
mats or rugs in boiling water, and litter the buildings with 
fresh pine shavings. 

LICE. 

These are degraded wingless hemipterous insects. 
There are two kinds : blood-suckers (hcematopimts), with 
narrow head and long trunk-like sucking tube ; and bird- 
lice (trichodectes), with very large, broad head, and no 
sucking tube, but biting jaws. 

Of the blood-suckers there is one species each for : — 
horse and ass ; horse and ox ; ox ; goat ; swine, and dog 
and ferret. 

Of bird-lice there is a species each for : — horse and ass ; 
ox and ass ; sheep ; goat ; dog ; cat ; duck, and goose ; 
two for the peacock ; three for the turkey ; four for the 
pigeon ; and five for the hen. 



Skin Diseases. 



377 



Fig. 57. 



Fig. 60. 



Fig. 58. 



Fig. 61. 



Fig. 59. 




Fig. 62. 




Fig 57 — Hsematopinus of Horse and Ass. Fig. 58 — Hsematopinus of Ox. 
Fig. 59 — Hsematopinus of Calf. Fig. 60 — Hsematopinus of Dog. Fig. 
61 — Hsematopinus of Pig. Fig. 62 — Trichodectes of Horse. 

They may be safely treated by sprinkling with powdered 
wood ashes or by rubbing with sulphur ointment or whale- 
oil, with water saturated with petroleum or kerosene, or 
with a solution of sulphuret of potassium or lime (4 oz. tc 
1 gall, water). Clean the buildings, clothes, etc., as foi 
fleas. 



378 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



Fig. 63. 






Fi<r. 64. 



Fig. 65. 





Fig. 66. 




Fig. 63 — TrichoJectes of Ox. Fig. 64— Trichodectes of Sheep. Fig. 65 
Trichodectes of Dog. Fig. 66 — Goniodes Stylifer of the Turkey. 



ERYSIPELAS. 

A specific, diffuse, spreading inflammation of the skin, 
often involving the loose connective tissue beneath, ard 
sometimes the internal organs, associated with fever, an 
unhealthy state of the blood, and usually a poison by which 
it may be communicated to another animal with broken 
skin. 

Causes. An unhealthy (septic, etc.,) condition of the 
atmosphere, the presence of impurities in the blood, from 
foul air or food, plethora, exhausting work, debilitating 
diseases, disorders of the liver, kidneys or other blood- 
forming or purifying organ, or the absorption of putrid 



Skin Diseases. 879 



matters from a sore or other diseased surface. Sheep, 
horses and swine fed on green or even harvested buck- 
wheat are liable, and all animals kept in close, filthy, 
unhealthy places or in the vicinity of accumulations ol 
decomposing animal and vegetable matters. Sudden sup- 
pression of an habitual discharge, heating food, and new 
grain and forage are occasional causes. But probably all 
of these do little more than lay the system open to the 
attack which would otherwise be escaped. More direct or 
exciting causes we find in local irritation, — as exposure to 
a hot sun (newly-shorn sheep), chafing inside the elbows 
or thighs, the presence of rancid fats on the skin, injuries 
from the harness, bites of insects, etc., burns, scalds, 
wounds, dropsies of the limbs, and above all the keeping 
of patients with open sores where there is excessive ema- 
nation from decomposing organic (especially animal) 
matter, or the dressing of erysipelatous and healthy sores 
with the same sponges. 

Symptoms. There is usually a preliminary fever, loss of 
spirit and appetite, heat of the skin, accelerated pulse and 
breathing, constipation, high-colored, scanty urine, and 
elevation of the temperature of the rectum, soon followed 
by a diffuse, hot, tender, shining, itching swelling, spread- 
ing from a wound or other seat of irritation or even on a 
previously healthy skin. In white skins the redness is 
very deep, the shade being darker according to the gravity 
of the case, and disappearing under the pressure of the 
finger only to reappear quickly on its removal. The 
swelling will be greater, according as the inflammation 
involves the skin only, extends to the connective tissue 
beneath (phlegmonous), or is complicated by a liquid exu- 
dation (cedematous). It shows a tendency to wide and 
rapid diffusion over the skin, its advancing border being 
always abruptly elevated from the healthy integument, 
though at points where it is recovering it may subside 
gradually and insensibly to the healthy surface. The 
inflamed skin is tense and smooth, but pits on pressure, 



3 SO The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

and often presents vesicles on its surface. After a few 
days the swelling and redness may diminish, and the 
blisters dry up into scales, which drop off, leaving a dark, 
red, tender surface ; or cracks may form with a sluggish, 
unhealthy action and little tendency to heal. When mat- 
ter forms it is liable to be diffused without any limiting 
membrane as in an ordinary abscess, and to lead to exten- 
sive death and sloughing of the skin and subjacent 
structures, or to absorption of pus and its deposit in 
internal organs, with fatal results. 

In horses it is seen mainly about the head, chest, belly 
and hind limbs, and is especially liable to prove cedema- 
tous. It is distinguished from Anthrax and Purpura 
Haimorrhagica by the presence of the wound or sore, by 
the low inflammatory character of the swelling, by the 
greater tendency to suppuration, and the implication 
of the adjacent lymphatic glands. 

Cattle suffer especially about the head but also on other 
parts of the body. Sheep suffer mainly about the head; 
but often and more severely about the udder, belly and 
inner side of the thigh or arm, and it may be elsewhere. 

Swine are mainly attacked about the head and neck, 
and less frequently on the inner side of the limbs, the 
chest or belly. 

Treatment. Open the bowels freely (horse, ox and 
sheep, Glauber salts ; swine and dog, castor-oil,) following 
it up by frequent and full doses of tincture of muriate of 
iron and a nourishing, easily digested diet. In case of 
much weakness or with very low fever use stimulants, al- 
coholic or ammoniacal as they may be demanded, but 
never if they cause dryness of skin and rise of temperature. 
Diuretics may be used in cedematous cases, but in a 
guarded manner because of the depression. To the af- 
fected skin apply warm fomentations, by preference, with 
weak solutions of tincture of muriate of iron, hyposulphite 
of soda or sulphate of zinc. Sometimes dry applications 
have a good effect, — as a mixture of sulphate of zinc and 



Skin Diseases. 381 



starch. Iodized collodion too is often of service. If mat- 
ter has actually formed it should be let out with the lancet, 
the wound being dressed with a solution of muriate of 
iron to prevent unhealthy action. 

WOUNDS. 

These are divided into simple clean cuts (incised), stabs- 
'pricks and punctures (punctured), bruised or crushed (con- 
tused) and torn (lacerated). Glean cuts often heal readily 
when the edges are brought together accurately and re- 
tained so. But such union by adhesion is most probable 
in strong, healthy, well-conditioned animals, and least so 
in the weak, poor and diseased. In fowls it is almost in- 
variable, in sioine nearly equally so, in dogs, cattle and 
sheep there is still a strong tendency to adhesion, while in 
horses all wounds readily form matter and primary adhe- 
sion throughout is exceptional. Bleeding should be 
checked, (see wounds of arteries, etc.,) clots washed off 
with a stream of tepid water, foreign objects carefully re- 
moved with fingers or forceps and the wound closed with 
as little exposure as possible. The edges may be stitched 
together by means of a curved flat needle with silk or 
linen, well waxed or steeped in a weak solution of carbolic 
acid, or better, with catgut which has been steeped for a 
month in oil and carbolic acid, or with silver or other 
metallic wire. It may be closed by a continuous stitch 
as in sewing a glove, when adhesion is to be expected, or 
by separate stitches a half to three-fourths of an inch 
apart when primary union is more doubtful. To secure 
uniform approximation of the edges or pressure on the 
different parts, the stitches may be passed round a quill 
placed on each lip of the wound (quilled suture). Or pins 
may be passed through the lips at suitable distances and 
a few fibres of tow twisted around each like the figure 8. 
Small wounds may have their edges shaved and layer 
after layer of collodion applied until the covering is strong 
enough to hold them together. The use of a weak solution 



382 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

of carbolic acid or other antiseptic agent will further favoi 
adhesion if it can be applied without causing movement 
of the lips of the wound. 

If the wound fails to heal by prompt adhesion, granula- 
tions form, covered with a thin layer of pus, and these 
gradually fill up the sore, leaving a scar. Or if the lips 
of the wound are still kept together the granulations may 
adhere (secondary adhesion), or finally small sores will 
scab over and healing take place beneath. 

Granulating icounds may be washed daily with a stream 
of tepid water, after the three first days, and may be 
covered with a simple dressing of tow saturated in water 
or oil to which a little carbolic acid has been added. 
"When necessarily left bare the same liquids may still be 
applied. "When the granulations become soft, flabby and 
projecting {proud flesh), touch lightly with a stick of lunar 
caustic, and expose to dry air. When they become indo- 
lent and when healing and contraction come to a stand-still, 
apply gentle stimulants — tincture of myrrh and aloes, etc. 
When the deeper parts of the lips of the wound do not 
come in contact, pads may be applied on each side to keep 
them in apposition. Granulating wounds usually heal by 
contraction from their edges, and if this is arrested by ad- 
hesion to bones and other firm parts beneath, further 
healing may be impossible. In this and other cases of 
tardy healing, the implanting of thin slices of scarfskin, 
just cut with a sharp instrument from other parts of the 
integument, and their retention with strips of sticking 
plaster, will usually hasten the process. 

Punctured wounds often heal promptly, and especially in 
animals prone to primary adhesion, when cleansed, kept 
at rest, with warm dressings and pressure on their deeper 
parts. If inflammation occurs in the deeper parts with 
suppuration, it may be necessary to enlarge the opening 
to allow of a ready discharge, and to let it heal outward 
by granulation. 

Bruised and torn wounds may be treated like punctured 



Shin Diseases. 383 



ones, and in birds, pigs and dogs, and in the more vasculai 
parts of the larger animals, will often heal by adhesion. 
Should they fail to do so, they ought to be stitched together, 
not too closely, and allowed to heal by granulation. Parts 
that are absolutely dead may be removed, but none that 
continue to show signs of life, and above all, no skin that 
can possibly be saved. 

Poisoned ivounds should be promptly cauterized (See 
Canine madness, Malignant anthrax, Lymphangitis). Sub- 
cutaneous wounds, in which the deeper parts are injured 
with little or no breach of the skin, mostly heal satisfac- 
torily, and the main object should be to secure a suitable 
position of the part, lest distortion should occur from 
undue contraction or extension of the structures in healing. 
For wounds that have resulted m fistula, see poll evil, fist- 
ulous witJiers and quittor. Whenever a foreign body is 
lodged in a wound it should be removed because of its 
tendency to cause fistula, especially in horses. 

BUENS AND SCALDS. 

The gravity of these will vary much according to their 
extent and depth. The treatment of the more severe 
is rarely desirable in the lower animals, because of the 
danger of fatal results from internal complications; or of 
ruinous distortions from the contraction of cicatrices. 
For slight burns apply cold water, Goulard water, water 
perceptibly sweetened with carbolic acid or flavored with 
oil of turpentine, keeping this up until the violent pain 
and inflammation have subsided. Success attends the 
exclusion of air by covering the part thickly with flour or 
cotton wool until irritation is past. The same end is 
gained by bathing the burn with oil of turpentine and 
afterward covering with resin ointment. When large 
blisters have formed, puncture with a needle and smooth 
down the cuticle on the skin by gentle pressure, following 
up with the soothing measures already recommended. 
When the skin is still more deeply burned and sloughing 



884 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

is inevitable, the stimulating applications (oil of turpen- 
tine with resin ointment, equal parts of linseed-oil and 
lime-water, etc.,) are still more demanded. As the sloughs 
separate, the detached parts should be c~it off with as little 
irritation as possible, and when the severe irritation sub- 
sides soothing applications will be in order. Finally, the 
healing process will be greatly hastened by ingrafting thin 
slices of scarfskin as advised under wounds. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

GENERAL DISEASES OF BONES, JOINTS AND 
MUSCLES. 

Lameness, symptoms, at rest and in exercise. Diseases of Bones. In- 
flammation, Ostitis. Periostitis. Softening. Enlargement. Suppura- 
tion. Ulceration. Scrofulous (Tubercular) Disease of Bone. Softening 
and Rarefaction of Bone. Rickets. Osteo Malacia. Softening in Cows. 
Softening in Horses. Big-head. Fractures. Diseases of Joints. Inflam- 
mation. Arthritis. Synovitis. Ulceration. Bony Deposit. Anchylosis. 
Open Joint. Inflammation of Bursse and Sheaths of Tendons. Diseases 
of Muscles. Ruptures. Inflammation. Fatty Degeneration. Rupture 
and Section of Tendons. Sprains. Thickening. Shortening. Calcifica 
tion. 

LAMENESS. 

As the three following chapters will embrace most of the 
different causes of lameness, the more prominent mani- 
festations of this failing may be here noticed. 

Standing. The patient should be approached quietly 
and when you are certain he is free from all exciting 
causes. If resting on all four limbs, the pastern of the 
lame one will usually be more upright than the others. 
One fore foot advanced eight or ten inches in front of the 
other suggests some tenderness of the heel or the struct- 
ures in the posterior region of the lower part of the limb. 
Bending of the knee and fetlock and resting of the foot on 
the toe, without any advance in front of the other, usually 
implies disease of the shoulder or elbow. The advance 
of both fore feet, the rest being taken on the heels, and 
the hind limbs brought well forward under the body, 
should direct attention to the front of the feet. Resting 



oSd The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

of one foot more frequently and for longer periods than 
its fellow is suspicious. 

Lijinq. An inclination to lie down, and remain so., is to 
be similarly regarded. If the animal remains down per- 
sistently, we may infer great suffering, fractures or much 
weakness. 

In Exercise. Lameness may be shown in the walk, but 
better in the slow, easy trot, the animal being led in hand 
with about three feet of free rein and without noise or 
other cause of excitement. Some horses manifest a bridle 
lameness fi-om the mere leading, but if the leader goes 
first on the left side and then on the right, the drooping 
of the head will correspond first to the one foot and then 
to the other, showing it to be only a feint. In all cases 
of lameness in a single limb the foot is rested on the 
ground with less weight and is raised as quickly as possi- 
ble. There is therefore not only the visible halting on 
that limb, but a lower sound made by striking the ground 
and thus the ear comes to assist the eye in detecting the 
ailing member. If one fore limb is affected, the head and 
anterior part of the body are elevated when its foot comes 
to the ground, but drop firmly when the sound foot is 
planted. A depression of the opposite hind limb accom- 
panying the elevation of the head, when the failing fore 
limb comes to the ground, must not lead to the suspicion 
of lameness behind. 

In single lameness behind, the gait resembles that seen 
in lameness before, the haunch on the diseased side being 
raised when the foot is planted and allowed to droop 
thereafter until the opposite foot reaches the ground. In 
some, the elevation is the prominent feature, in others the 
depression, but in all the rising and falling are greater 
than in the opposite quarter. 

With lameness in both fore limbs the step is short, the 
stroke on the ground weak, the rest of each foot on the 
ground shortened, the shoulders are carried upright and 
stiff, the head is raised, the loins are arched, the croup 



General Diseases of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 387 

droops, and the hind limbs are brought unnaturally for 
ward beneath the belly. 

Lameness in both hind limbs is marked by the back- 
ward position of the fore feet, the short rest and weak 
impulse of the hind on the ground, the extension and 
drooping of the head, and above all the difficulty of back- 
ing. 

Lameness in the two limbs on the same side determines 
a gait approaching the amble or rack, with the firm plant- 
ing of the opposite members. Lameness of one fore and 
the opposite hind produces a simple exaggeration of the 
gait caused by disease in one of these limbs. When the 
cause of lameness exists in more than one limb it is diffi- 
cult to make the animal keep the trot. 

In all cases it is well to have the animal driven or 
ridden so as to heat him, and then keep him perfectly 
still for half an hour to cool, before completing the exam- 
ination, as many lamenesses will disappear when the 
subject is warmed by exercise. 

DISEASES OF BONES. 

These may be divided into : — inflammation of the bone 
itself (ostitis), or of its fibrous covering (periostitis), which 
may result in softening, consolidation or induration, enlarge- 
ment, bony growtlis and tumors, abscess, ulceration and death 
(necrosis). Beside these there are the degenerations and 
diseases of bone such as deficiency or excess of earthy salts, 
with bending or brittleness of the bones ; tubercle, cancer, 
and sarcomatous, cartilaginous, cystic, vascular or other tu- 
mors, etc. 

But the great mass of bone diseases in the domestic 
animals consist in inflammation and its results, to which, 
accordingly, the following remarks will be mainly con- 
fined. Every bone is permeated even in its densest parts 
by an abundant network of minute blood-vessels, and 
studded throughout with microscopic soft elements (nu- 
clei^ which appropriate the suitable materials from the 



388 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

blood and build them up into the hard bony texture. H 
these nuclei are injured their powers of assimilation are 
modified, their numbers are multiplied, and they become 
surrounded by an excess of semi-fluid matter (lymph) 
with, it may be, one of the following results : — 1st, the 
softening of the bone and the removal of its earthy salts, 
until it can be cut with a knife or gives way under the 
weight of the animal: — 2d, the transformation of the 
lymph into pus on the surface of the bone or in its interior, 
where it may remain imprisoned for an indefinite length 
of time : — 3d, the hardening of a limited amount of lymph 
in the cells or inter-spaces of the bone, compressing the 
blood-vessels, limiting the supply of blood and favoring 
ulceration or even death of the part : — 4th, from the above 
cause, or from a perversion of the plastic or assimilating 
powers of the nuclei, ulceration sets in on the surface 
or in the interior of the bone, and the bony matter is 
steadily removed to be replaced by an irregular excavation 
or a cavity filled by a bloody ichor : — 5th, the swelling 
may completely close the blood-vessels of the bone or the 
inflammation may cause coagulation of the blood within 
them throughout a considerable portion, which accord- 
ingly dies, and has to be removed as a foreign body : — 
6th, short of those extreme conditions and more com- 
monly, the exudation leads to a partial softening and 
general swelling of the inflamed part, and this becoming 
consolidated and hardened there is a material increase of 
size : — 7th, and by far the most frequently, the inflamma- 
tion affects the superficial layer of bone and its investing 
fibrous membrane, and the exudation, taking place be- 
tween these, is soon consolidated into a layer or tumor of 
bone on the surface : — 8th, any exudation on the outer 
side of the fibrous covering is also liable to be calcified 
and to form hard tumors, but these do not acquire the 
true bony texture like that formed between the membrane 
and the bone. 

General Symptoms. In the slightest forms of Mamma 



General Diseases of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 389 

tion there may be little or no lameness, though usually 
there is a halt on the affected limb when trotted on a hard 
surface. The affected portion of the bone is tender to 
pressure or percussion, and is the seat of swelling at first 
soft and yielding, but later hard and resistant. In the 
severer forms the bone itself is softened, extensive exuda- 
tion of lymph takes place around it, and the investing soft 
structures become the seat of violent inflammation and 
swelling ; lameness is then extreme. In the slighter and 
chronic cases there is no disturbance of the general health, 
but in the more acute and severe, intense and even fatal 
irritative fever may come on. 

When suppuration takes place in the interior of a bone 
the matter may remain imprisoned indefinitely, the spot 
being marked by a general increase of the bone, and lame- 
ness persists. If suppuration takes place between the 
bone and its fibrous covering the danger is even greater, 
for the matter is liable to separate the bone and mem- 
brane, producing further inflammation or ulceration, or 
even death of the bone — the supply of blood being cut off. 
The superficial abscess is to be detected by its fluctuation 
beneath the fingers, as in abscess of soft parts. 

Ulceration may result from pressure of matter, etc., or 
from exposure to the air. If without external opening, it is 
not easily recognized, but there is lameness and tenderness, 
with little alteration of the surface of the bone, or the 
presence of slight bony deposits alternating, it may be, 
with soft open spaces. If the ulcerated bone is open to 
the air, it is found to be softened in texture, breaking down 
readily under the pressure of a probe, and in the centre of 
the ulcerous cavity rounded bony deposits are felt, as 
evidence of an effort at repair. The discharge is then 
ichorous, and abounds in gritty particles and earthy salts. 
If this discharge has commenced to decompose it smells 
badly. 

Death of bone is always associated with an open sore 
discharging a very foetid ichorous fluid, with gritty parti- 



390 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

cles and the power of rapidly blackening silver. If probed 
the hard bone is felt without any fibrous covering, and 
if seen this is black, yellowish, white, or of some allied 
shade and without any of the pink aspect of healthy bone 
General Treatment of Inflammation in Bone. Unless in 
the very mildest cases, the first object is to check the in- 
flammation by soothing measures. A purgative is usually 
desirable. Rest is indispensable. Whenever possible 
such a position should be given to the part as will obviate 
pressure, weight, or gravitation of blood toward the dis- 
ease. Soothing local measures, such as fomentations with 
warm water ; a thick wet bandage covered with dry ; the 
persistent application of cold water, by continuous shower- 
ing of the part, the water being brought from a bucket 
placed at a higher level, by means of an elastic tube 
fastened to the body ; in certain cases ice-bags may be 
applied ; or cooling astringent lotions, such as vinegar and 
salt ; acetate of lead £ oz., vinegar 2 qts., carbolic acid 60 
drops, etc. This may have to be kept up from five to fif- 
teen days. When heat and tenderness have subsided, 
counter-irritants are to be used. In slight cases rubbing 
with compound iodine ointment, or with a mixture in equal 
parts of liquor ammonia and olive-oil may suffice. In 
others we must use active blisters such as Spanish flies 
2 dr., camphor 5 grs., alcohol 5 drops, lard 1 oz. Or a 
drachm of the Spanish flies may be replaced by a drachm 
of iodide or biniodide of mercury. In either case the hair 
should be cut off and the ointment well rubbed in foi 
several minutes against the direction of the hair. Th* 
animal's head should be tied short for twelve hours, to 
prevent gnawing of the part and blistering of the lips. 
After this the surface is to be smeared with lard, daily, 
until the scab drops off. In still other cases the hot iron 
may be demanded. It should be applied in points, each 
application being very temporary, to avoid the effect of 
radiated heat on the adjacent skin. The usual distance 
between the points is from \ to f inch, and the depth wilJ 



General Diseases of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 891 

vary in different cases. When the irritation from the hot 
iron has passed off, blisters may be applied if necessary. 

In all cases the use of counter-irritants must be stopped 
and soothing measures resorted to when it becomes evident 
that active inflammation has been set up anew in the bone. 
A long period of rest is essential to allow of the hardening 
of the newly formed bony tissue or of the old bone which 
has been softened or otherwise altered by disease. 

Matter forming in the interior of a bone is to be evacu- 
ated by boring down to it with a circular saw (trephine). 
Matter forming between the bone and its investing mem- 
brane must be promptly evacuated with a sharp knife or 
lancet. 

Simple ulcerftion is to be treated like an ordinary wound, 
the pressure or other cause of its existence having been 
first removed. A nourishing diet and a course of tonics 
(cinchona, gentian, etc.,) are usually demanded. 

A dead hone should be removed. If a simple scale or 
film on the surface, it may be taken off with a sharp knife 
or chisel. If larger the bone-forceps or saw may be 
necessary. It may sometimes be needful to remove a 
piece of live bone with the circular saw, to make way for 
the extraction of a dead portion imprisoned within. 
Should the outer fibrous covering of the bone be preserved 
intact, new bone may be formed in place of the old, but 
never so perfect in form, and, as a rule, the extensive loss 
of an important bone, in one of the lower animals, renders 
it useless and should warrant its destruction. 

In no case should a cutting operation on a bone be 
undertaken while the soft parts around it are in a state ol 
acute inflammation, as, although the diseased or dead 
parts should be removed, the adjacent bone is likely to 
take on unhealthy action and to prove worse than at 
first. 

In case of new bony deposits and tumors, it is rarely 
desirable to resort to cutting instruments, unless when 
they have a broad mass and narrow neck, connecting 



392 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

them to the parent bone. In this case they can be laid 
bare and removed with bone forceps or chisel. Other 
forms are best left to nature after all unhealthy action has 
been subdued, and will materially diminish when preserved 
from hard work, strains, jars and all excitants to renewed 
growth. When continuous gentle pressure can be applied 
without irritation it greatly favors absorption. In some 
instances the distension of the fibrous membrane covering 
a bony swelling is the main cause of continued inflamma- 
tion and lameness. This is to be met by dividing the 
membrane with a narrow-bladed knife inserted to one 
side of the swelling, much care being requisite to avoid 
entrance of air, injury to joints, etc. 

SCROFULOUS (TUBERCULOUS) DISEASE OF BONES. 

This is mostly seen in young animals when the bones 
are soft and growing rapidly, and may be suspected when 
the patient comes of a tuberculous family. It will attack 
any part but is especially common in the lower part of the 
limbs and is one form of "foiH in the foot." It attacks the 
ends of long bones or the whole bulk of short ones, those 
parts, in short, which have an open cancellated texture. 
The interspaces of the bony tissue fill up with gelatinoid 
lymph, which may or may not pass into the yellow cheesy 
tubercle, and similar changes take place on the surface, 
long outgrowths appearing, the interstices of which are 
filled by the same product. Ulceration ensues, sores form 
in the skin, discharging an unhealthy matter, the softened 
bony tissues may be felt breaking down under a probe, 
and the ends or processes of the bones may be found de- 
tached from the shaft or median part. 

There may be coexisting tubercle in the lungs, bowels, 
etc., with cough, expectoration, diarrhoea, etc., and some- 
times in young animals the navel remains open and the 
arine dribbles from it continually. 

Treatment is hardly advisable as tuberculous animals 
are undesirable alike for breeding or for human food. If 



General Diseases of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 393 

consists in securing a good nurse, well fed on grain as well 
as fodder if the patient is young, or good feeding if be- 
yond this stage. Lime-water in the sucking, and in all 
subjects tonics (phosphate of iron, hyposulphite of iron, 
cinchona, cod-liver oil, pancreatine, etc.) 

SOFTENING AND RAREFACTION OF BONE. 

Eickets. Young animals (puppies, sheep, calves and, 
less frequently, foals,) often suffer from an imperfect nu- 
trition of the bones, with a deficiency of earthy salts, so 
that the bones, especially those of the limbs, bend under 
the weight of the animal and assume various unsightly 
distortions. The affection runs hereditarily in certain fam- 
ilies, and its appearance is often determined by insuffi- 
cient, excessive or injurious food, such as poor, sour or 
fevered milk or inadequate substitutes. Anything that 
undermines the general health will develop it in a predis- 
posed subject. The malady may usually be checked by a 
change to rich or moderate feeding, as the case may de- 
mand, a dose of pepsin wine at each meal, with dry warm 
airy sleeping places and access to the open air, sunshine 
and gentle exercise. Puppies may have bones to gnaw at 
will. In cases of severe threatened distortion much ben- 
efit may be derived from support by well-padded bandages. 

Softening of Bones in Dairy Cows. This resembles 
rickets in its dependence on the nature of the food, but 
appears only in breeding cows. It is a disease of poor 
sandy and gravelly soils, the vegetation of which is defi- 
cient in earthy salts, and even on these is shown only after 
a dry season when the fodder is at its worst. Diseases of 
digestion and assimilation will also, exceptionally, deter- 
mine it. The parts that primarily suffer are the bones of 
the haunch, the disease resembling in this respect the osteo 
malacia of women who have borne children. 

Symptoms. Lameness, difficulty in rising, with some 
alteration of form in the quarters are the first signs, and 
an examination of the pelvic bones by the oiled hand in- 



394 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

m 

troduccd through the rectum will detect a want of sym- 
metry on the two sides, from bulging, irregular swellings 
at different points. In more advanced stages the bones 
break and crumble under the body's weight and the ani- 
mal remains constantly down, unable to rise. A depraved 
appetite and a tendency to eat all sorts of unnatural ob- 
jects, though a common symptom in breeding cows, is ex- 
cessive in many of these cases, and the patient mostly 
loses flesh rapidly, though some will remain fat for a 
length of time. 

Treatment. Change the locality to one with a richer 
fodder or bring the wholesome fodder to the animals, and 
add, liberally, grain (barley, maize, oats, beans,) from 
sound localities. Fresh air, sunshine and dry resting 
places are all important. Avoid breeding again until 
health is fully established, or better, fatten for the butcher. 

Softening of Bones in Horses. The big-head of the 
Mississippi valley, is a manifestation of a general fault in 
nutrition, showing itself in all the bones of the body more 
or less. Like the affection of cows it consists in a steady 
increase of the canals and cavities in bone, with their con- 
tained soft or plastic matter, at the expense of the hard 
bony structure. With the continuous enlargement of the 
bone there is an extreme thinning of the microscopic bony 
plates, until the structure can be easily cut with a knife 
or crushed under the pressure of the finger. The inter- 
spaces are filled by a red bloody mass, with the natural 
elements more or less modified and the addition of many 
spherical cells, or later of fat. As the disease advances 
the bones can no longer afford a firm attachment for the 
ligaments and tendons, but crumbling, dislocations and 
fractures are inevitable. There is some fundamental 
fault in assimilation, and though it may be determined 
primarily to the face by the hard work of grinding flinty 
maize, or its development may be precipitated by pooi 
feeding, unwholesome stabling, overwork and abuse, yet 
its true primary cause is unknown. It is mainly or alto- 
gether a disease of early life, under seven years old. 



General Diseases of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 395 

Treatment should be directed to the improvement of 
the general health by tonics, (cinchona, mix vomica, cas- 
carilla, boneset, willow bark, myrrh, oxide of iron, phos- 
phate of iron, etc.,) carminatives, (ginger, pimento, fennel, 
t'ounugrec, cardamoms, coriander,) pepsin, sound nutritious 
food, (given soft-boiled or steamed if necessary) pure air, 
exercise in sunshine, grooming, etc.) No good can be ex- 
pected of advanced cases, but only of those seen in the 
sarly stage, with some stiffness, and swelling of bone, and 
the passage of phosphates, to excess, in the urine. 

FEACTUEES. 

These are simple when a bone is broken across ; commi- 
nuted when broken into several pieces ; and compound when 
the soft parts are torn so as to establish a communication 
between the broken ends and the external air. The two 
last are extremely dangerous, but the first is more hopeful. 
Simple fractures, however, vary in gravity according to 
their kind. Thus in the very young the break is liable to 
be imperfect, with a number of pointed processes locking 
into each other (greenstick fracture) and as the ends are 
easily and accurately replaced and the bones soft and 
vascular, repair is prompt and perfect. In others the 
break is directly and smoothly across, or with indentations 
and processes, so that when the ends are placed in appo- 
sition they cannot slide past each other ; these too are 
easily repaired. A third class are broken obliquely or with 
a bevel, so that the broken surfaces slide upon each other 
under the contractions of the muscles, and the sharp ends 
are continually jerked into the soft parts around. The 
continuous movement prevents union and the irritation of 
the soft parts sets up inflammation so that such fractures 
may prove as troublesome as the compound. 

Symptoms. Disuse of the affected bone, distortion oi 
the part, shortening, if it is the main bone of a limb, 
trembling of the muscles over the injury, a grating sensa* 
tion conveyed to the hand on moving the broken bone, 



39 6 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

unnatural mobility of the part, and the suddenness of the 
injury from a wrong step or some mechanical violence. 
In cracks and partial fractures of bones with a strong in- 
vesting fibrous membrane, there may be no displacement, 
increased mobility nor grating, but only a tender line 
across the bone with or without a slight elevation. 

Treatment. The first thing to be done is to bring the 
broken ends into correct apposition and retain them there 
by splints and bandages. No matter if the soft parts are 
inflamed and swollen, to leave the sharp ends jerking into 
them with each contraction of the muscles, will only make 
matters worse, whereas the removal of this source of irri- 
tation will usually entail immediate improvement. If from 
the oblique or comminuted nature of the fracture the 
bones cannot be so placed and retained, recovery need not 
be expected, at least without distortion. 

To bring the ends together accurately, it may be nec- 
essary to employ extension and counter-extension. A 
strong sheet or blanket is crossed over the inside of the 
upper part of the limb and held to keep the body still; 
while extension is effected by lines attached to the foot , 
a block and tackle may be used, but cautiously, in view of 
the increased power thereby obtained. It may even be 
needful to relax the muscles by placing the animal under 
the influence of ether, chloroform, or chloral-hydrate. 
While the limb is being extended the operator brings the 
broken ends together correctly, and splints are applied. 

These may be made of sheets of gutta-percha softened 
in warm water and applied so as to adapt themselves to 
the inequalities of the lirob ; of strong pasteboard with the 
edges torn (not cut) and softened in water to allow of its 
being moulded to the surface ; of starch bandage, a long 
cotton bandage three inches wide, laid on accurately, layer 
above layer, and starched as applied so that it dries into 
a perfectly fitting and hard resisting case ; a plaster band- 
age consisting of a long roll of the same kind with plaster 
of Paris thickly dusted between its layers, and the whole 



General Diseases of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 897 

dipped in water before it is applied ; or pieces of sheet- 
iron carefully padded to prevent chafing and secure perfect 
adaptation, and bound firmly by a surface bandage ; or 
wooden splints may be fashioned to the form of one side 
of the limb and applied with a sufficient internal padding. 
It is usually needful to apply one of these wooden or iron 
splints outside the starch or gutta-percha cases, in the 
larger animals, to give the requisite solidity. In all 
cases the limb should be accurately wrapped in a long 
narrow strip of cotton or linen as a protection before the 
application of the bandage proper. The bandage should 
always extend to the extremity of the limb (hoof or claws), 
otherwise the uncovered portion will swell, inflame, and 
perhaps die. It should not only fix immovably all the 
joints below the fracture but if possible the next above as 
well, as by this means, as well as by the enforced immo- 
bility of the muscles, the perfect rest of the broken ends 
is secured. 

If swelling existed before the application of the bandage, 
it may become loose in a day or two and should be re- 
opened and more accurately applied, care being taken to 
secure equal pressure from the extremity up. The starch 
bandage may be slit open up the side and when properly 
padded reapplied with the one edge overlapping the other 
as far as necessary, and fixed by a long bandage applied 
over all. The plaster bandage may be adapted by filling 
up the interval between the soft skin bandage and the 
plaster case with a thin pulpy mixture of plaster of Paris 
and water poured in at the top. 

The limb should be kept in the bandage for a month or 
six weeks, and will require a rest of two or three months 
more, for the consolidation of the new tissue, before being 
put to work. 

Fractures in the upper parts of the limbs of quadrupeds, 
which it is impossible to fix by bandages, may yet recover 
with very little shortening or distortion if the break is 
transverse. Fractures of these parts and of the ribs 



398 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

recover with a considerable enlargement around the seat 
of the break, which may be afterward absorbed in part or 
in whole, as the bone is consolidated. The same holds 
good of fractures of other parts when movement is allowed 
between the divided ends during recovery. 

Slings. For large quadrupeds with broken limbs sling- 
ing is absolutely essential. The simplest mode is the 
following : — Four strong posts are fixed to the ground and 
roof, so as to form an oblong, inside which the four feet of 
the animal may stand. A strong horizontal bar is then 
fixed to the two posts on each side at such a height as to 
correspond to the middle of the body. Then the animal 
being walked into the frame a horizontal bar is fixed be- 
tween the two front posts so high as to cross the lower 
part of the neck, and another between the two hind posts 
at about the height of the stifle. Next a strong sheet 
(new sail cloth is best) is fixed to the one side bar by 
being wound round and nailed at the outer side, and hav- 
ing been passed beneath the body, is fixed to the opposite 
bar in the same way. It must be just sufficiently far back 
to clear the fore limbs, and just so loose as to allow 
the patient to stand over it without pressure or chafing, 
or to settle himself into it at will. In the male, care must 
be taken to have it narrow enough not to cover the 
sheath. 

It is often necessary to allow an animal to become 
fatigued by standing for a day or two before being put in 
a sling, otherwise he may be very irritable at first. Care 
must be taken not to let him feel the sling beneath him 
until it is ready to be fixed, as many patients will settle 
down into it the moment it is felt. 

DISEASES OF TEE JOINTS. 
Here in addition to bone we have gristle, fibrous tissue 
(capsular and binding ligaments) and synovial membrane, 
a thin vascular structure which secretes the albuminous 
glairy fluid known as joint-oil. 



General Diseases of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 899 

INFLAMMATION. AETHEITIS. SYNOVITIS. 

Here again the most common lesion is inflammation 
from which most of the others follow as consequences. 
This may begin in the bones as a result of concussion, 
blows, etc., and extend through the cartilage and ligaments 
to the synovial membrane; or it may originate in th.9 
ligaments as a consequence of sprains or other injuries ; 
or in the synovial membrane from wounds opening the 
joint and exposing it to the air ; or it may be a local 
manifestation of some constitutional disease such as rheu- 
matism, tubercle, glanders, farcy, etc., or finally it may be 
due to plugging of the blood-vessels in consequence of 
pus, ichor or fibrinous clots washed on through the vessels 
from some distant seat of disease. In all cases the whole 
of the joint structures tend to be involved and the symp- 
toms are similar. 

The succession of changes may be as follows : the 
indamed synovial membrane throws out a serous fluid 
filling the joint to excess ; the ligaments and adjacent 
connective tissue also throw out a semi-liquid exudation 
which forms a yielding swelling around the joint, suscep- 
tible of indentation with the fingers ; the cartilage covering 
the ends of the bones softens and is changed into a fibrous 
material or is even absorbed, leaving the bone bare ; the 
bone exposed in this way may ulcerate, if that has not 
previously commenced, or it may be partially repaired by 
the deposit of a dense ivory-like layer (eburnation), the 
smooth glistening surface of which glides smoothly on 
that of the opposite bone ; lymph may be exuded from 
the exposed surface of the bone and from the interior of 
the synovial membrane, and this, as well as what is out- 
side the joint, may be developed into fibrous tissue re- 
stricting the movements of the joint, or more frequently 
into bone which binds the bony structures together and 
abolishes all movement (stiff-joint, anchylosis) ; in very 
severe cases the lymph inside and outside the joint de- 
generates into pus, and this makes its way through the 



400 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

tissues to the surface, is discharged and leaves an open 
joint, which soon determines a further increase of the 
inflammation and destructive changes. In tuberculous 
diseases of the joints there is the softening and enlarge- 
ment of the ends of the bones, a gelatiniform exudation, 
and its cheesy degeneration ; in rheumatism there is little 
tendency to suppuration ; in glanders, farcy, plugging of 
vessels, etc., there is. the specific deposit or an early sup- 
puration. 

General Symptoms. The joint is swollen, tense and 
elastic, is kept partially bent, is hot and tender, the parts 
around it may retain the indentation made by the finger, 
and the suffering is greatly increased when the joint is 
moved. There are all grades from heat, tenderness, swell- 
ing and habitual flexion of the joints, with the capacity of 
working off the lameness during exercise, to severe forms 
in which no weight can be thrown upon the limb, and the 
attendant fever is so intense that appetite is gone, thirsi is 
ardent, breathing and pulse greatly accelerated, the heat 
of the body raised to a high point and the patient may 
die from the constitutional excitement. 

When suppuration takes place there is an aggravation 
of all the symptoms, with frequent shivering, and the 
gradual absorption of the soft parts renders the fluctuation 
more and more evident up to the period of rupture. Pre- 
ceding stiff-joint there is a long period of subacute inflam- 
mation, the joint being kept immovable by the pain and 
the abundant exudation, until ossification ensues. 

Tuberculous disease of the joints occurs in young ani- 
mals, the offspring of consumptive families, and is marked 
by the enlargement and softening of the ends of the bones, 
the formation of wounds or ulcers, and, it may be, disease 
of the lungs or bowels. 

Rheumatic disease is characterized by its tendency to 
move from joint to joint or muscle, by its aggravation 
under the influence of cold and damp and improvement 
under warmth and sunshine, and by its indisposition tc 



General Diseases of Bones 1 Joints and Muscles. 401 

suppuration. Glanders, farcy, plugging of the vessels, 
etc., are distinguished by the presence of the coexisting 
disease in other parts. 

General Treatment. In severe cases secure immobility 
in the joints by placing in slings, and, if necessary, by the 
application of a smart blister around the articulation. In 
the absence of the blister apply cooling or soothing lotions 
as for inflammation of bone and follow this up by blisters 
or firing when the inflammation has in the main subsided 
and the heat and tenderness disappeared. In the slight, 
subacute and chronic forms the counter-irritants may be 
applied at the first. When anchylosis threatens it is 
sometimes advisable to favor it by active blistering and 
rigid immobility of the joint. If ulceration of the joint 
surface occurs the hot iron usually gives the best results. 
If suppuration has ensued the pus must escape by an 
external opening and our efforts must be thereafter di- 
rected to limiting the inflammation as far as possible and 
obviating death by the general fever, or uselessness, by 
destruction of the joint. 

In the severer forms a purgative should be given at the 
outset and this may be followed by a soft laxative diet 
(mashes, roots, green food,) and diuretics, (carbonates or 
acetates of potassa or soda, colchicum, etc.,) especially 
when there is reason to suspect any rheumatic complica- 
tion. In some cases of this, as of bone disease, in which 
there is imperfect assimilation and the passage of an 
excess of phosphates in the urine, a course of bitters and 
iron tonics is demanded. 

Tuberculous disease of the joints demands similar treat- 
ment with due attention to the general health to correct, 
if possible, the unhealthy state. 

OPEN JOINT. 

This results from an incised, punctured, lacerated 01 
contused wound and will vary in gravity according to the 
nature of the wound and the certainty of inflammation 
ensuing. If there is a simple minute puncture or cut, the 

2G 



402 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

wound may close without this result, but if the tissues are 
severely lacerated or bruised, as in case of falls, etc., a 
certain amount of inflammation must necessarily ensue. 

Treatment. Never probe such wounds. Sand or gritty 
matter must be removed by a stream of tepid water or the 
most careful picking, and the lips of the wound brought 
together if necessary by stitches, but with as few as pos- 
sible and those only passing through the skin. Perfect 
quiet must be secured by slings, splints, bandages or, 
if the opening is small, by a blister enveloping the joint 
but leaving a clear space of an inch around the wound. 
In the absence of the blister, the joint may be irrigated 
with cold water continuously applied as for ostitis, or a 
poultice may be applied with a weak solution of carbolic 
acid poured over its surface, or the same carbolic lotion 
(1 part to 100 water) may be applied by means of sat- 
urated cotton bandages covered with dry. Coagulating 
agents (powdered alum, acetate of lead, sulphate of zinc, 
etc.,) are sometimes used to close the wound by a clot of 
synovia, and if this has been effected it should never be 
disturbed by picking or dressing, but left to be expelled 
when the wound is finally closed by the growth of gran- 
ulations from its lips. The greatest danger lies in the 
movement of the joint which stimulates the secretion 
of synovia and keeps the wound open ; in the introduction 
of atmospheric air into the joint, and in the decomposi- 
tion of the morbid liquids in the wound. Hence, perfect 
rest, closure of the wound and the use of antiseptics like 
carbolic acid are all-important. 

The general treatment is the same as for arthritis from 
other causes. 

If suppuration ensues there is the greatest danger of 
destruction of the joint. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE SYNOVIAL CAVITIES — BUKSJ3 AND 
SHEATHS OF TENDONS. 

Butscb are little synovial cavities placed between the 
ekin and prominent bony processes to favor the gliding of 



General Diseases of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 403 

the one on the other. Thecce are similar sacs interposed 
between bones and fibrous cords (tendons, ligaments,) or 
between two such cords, to favor gliding. Each may be 
the seat of inflammation with its consequences — over- 
distension from excessive secretion of serum : — exudation 
of lymph, with thickening, induration, adhesion, calcifica- 
tion of the walls, or with suppuration. 

It may be developed by wounds, punctures, cuts, bruises, 
sprains or rheumatism, and is manifested by heat, pain, 
tenderness and an elastic swelling (wind-puff, wind-gall,) 
the enlargement usually remaining after inflammation has 
subsided. This condition, as well as induration or calci- 
fication of the walls, causes material deformity. Sup- 
puration is evinced by a great increase of the heat and 
tenderness, with a more distinct and superficial fluctua- 
tion and a surrounding engorgement which pits on press- 
ure. 

Treatment consists in rest, a relaxed posture of any 
tendons implicated, and soothing, cooling or astringent 
applications as in the early stages of sprains or ostitis. 
A purgative, and restricted diet are equally necessary. 
When heat and tenderness have subsided a small blister 
(see periostitis) will often cause absorption of the liquid ; 
or it may disappear under pressure maintained for two 
hours at a time, twice daily at first, and increased by two 
hours daily ; or finally, the liquid may be drawn off by the 
nozzle of a hypodermic syringe and the sac compressed 
with a bandage (and, if necessary, pads) saturated in an as- 
tringent cooling lotion. After evacuating the liquid an 
injection of compound tincture of iodine 1 part, water 2 
parts, may be thrown in and expressed again after three 
minutes, the part being afterward covered with wet band- 
ages. 

For suppuration a simple subcutaneous bursa may be 
laid freely open and allowed to heal by granulation, or a 
thread may be drawn through the cavity and the pus 
drawn off, while cooling lotions are applied to the surface 



404 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

DISEASES OF MUSCLES. 
RUPTURE OF MUSCLES. 

The red flesh is rarely torn in life and never by volun- 
tary contraction. Though torn across with ease after 
death it will resist much more during life than the white 
fibrous cord by which it is attached to the bones. Mus* 
cles are usually torn by some extreme involuntary con- 
traction, as in recovering from a wrong step or slip, or in 
the extreme contractions of lock-jaw. Rupture is rec- 
ognized by the sudden pain and inability to use the mus- 
cle, and, if it is superficial, by tenderness, by a depression 
in the seat of the tear, and a bulging of the muscle above 
and below it. Later the depression may be filled by a 
soft compressible clot. 

Treatment consists in the approximation of the divided 
ends by such a position as will relax the muscle and by a 
tight bandage from the foot up if it be in a limb. 

INFLAMMATION OF MUSCLE. 

This is usually the result of rheumatism but may arise 
from continued use or from local injury. It is manifested 
by swelling and extreme tenderness of the muscle in ques- 
tion, with loss of contractile power. If rheumatic it has 
the further characteristic of shifting from place to place. 
It may result in abscess, or thickening of the fibrous in- 
vesting membrane, or in calcareous, granular or fatty de- 
generation. It must be treated by rest, with soothing lo- 
cal treatment like any ordinary inflammation, and matter 
may be evacuated with knife or lancet, but the degenera- 
tions may be looked upon as permanent. 

Fatty degeneration is common in overfed animals, above 
all in those bred for early maturity and great aptitude to 
fatten (improved cattle, sheep and pigs,) and is quite irre- 
mediable. It may also arise from paralysis, the result of 
injuries to the nerves as in roaring. 

RUPTURE OF TENDONS. SECTION OF TENDONS. 

These are not uncommon in horses during severe ex- 



General Diseases of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 405 

ertions, as on the race-course, the back tendons being the 
most common seat of the injury. Whether torn across or 
divided with a cutting instrument, they are readily repaired 
by the exudation of lymph between the divided ends and 
its organization into white fibrous tissue. It is neces- 
sary to support the limb so that the divided ends may be 
placed in apposition and retained thus for three or four 
weeks. Inflammation is to be checked by ordinary means. 

SPEAINS. 

When subjected to over-exertion, sinews become the 
seat of sudden severe pain, inflammation, exudation, thick- 
ening and shortening. Sprains occur mainly from severe 
and continued over-exertion, or from the sudden jerk con- 
sequent on taking a wrong step when fatigued and unable 
readily to recover the balance. They are most frequent 
where tendons play over a bony process, but may occur 
at any part, and are of all grades from those producing a 
slight halt, with almost imperceptible thickening of the 
tendinous cord, to those in which the cord has been ex- 
tensively torn and becomes the centre of a most violent 
inflammation. 

Treatment. When violently inflamed or the seat of ex- 
treme pain, the tendon should be rested and relaxed by 
giving a suitable position to the limb, and fomented with 
warm water or showered continuously with cold, until heat 
and tenderness have been subdued. Or cooling astringent 
lotions may be used as advised under ostitis. A laxative 
and restricted diet are often essential. When heat and 
tenderness have subsided, occasional showering with cold 
water and hand-rubbing, or stimulating liniments (cam- 
phorated spirit ; liquor ammonia 1 part, olive-oil 2 parts ; 
camphorated spirit and peppermint water equal parts, 
etc.,) may be used. The same agents may be applied to 
very slight cases at the outset. Or blisters may be ap- 
plied as advised under ostitis. 



40 G The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

THICKENING, SHORTENING, CALCIFICATION OF TENDONS. 

These are the results of severe or repeated sprains. Ii 
slight they may be benefited by time, gentle exercise (at 
grass), and an occasional blister of iodide of mercury. In 
cases with such thickening and shortening as to impair 
usefulness, after all inflammation has subsided the tendons 
may be cut across by a narrow-bladed knife, making an 
almost imperceptible skin wound, the ends drawn apart 
by full extension of the limb, and the case treated like an 
accidentally ruptured or cut tendon. If this operation 
is performed in a warm season, antiseptics must be ap* 
plied to the wound. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

SPECIAL INJUKIES OF BONES, JOINTS AND 
MUSCLES. 

Fracture of the lower jaw. Injuries by bit and curb. Fracture of ths 
upper jaw; of the bones of the nose; of the frontal bones; of the crest of 
the poll ; of the base of the cranium. Dislocation of the lower jaw. Open 
Joint between upper and lower jaws. Cancer (Encephaloid) of the Orbit. 
Tooth-like tumors under the ear. Poll Evil. Fistulous Withers. Fract- 
ured Processes of the neck-bones. Broken neck. Fracture of the Spinous 
Processes of the back and loins. Sprain of the back or loins. Transverse 
Fracture of the back or loins. Broken Back. Laceration of the muscles 
beneath the loins. Fracture of the croup. Injuries to the bones of the tail. 
Fractured Ribs. Wounds penetrating the chest. Shoulder lameness. Tu- 
mors on the shoulder. Sprain of the Coraco-radial tendon. Shoulder- 
sprain. Sprain of the muscles outside the shoulder-blade. Disease of the 
shoulder-joint. Other affections of the shoulder. Affections of the elbow 
and arm. Tumors on the point of the elbow. Wounds of the elbow. 
Fracture of the point of the elbow. Disease of the elbow-joint. Fracture 
of the arm bone. Fracture of the fore-arm. Sprain of the radial ligament. 
Sprain of the back tendons behind the knee. Thorough-pin of the knee. 
Synovial swellings in front of the knee. Inflammation of the knee. Dislo- 
cation of the knee. Wounds of the knee. Speedy cut. Broken knees. 
Splints. Sore shins. Fracture of the splint bones; of the shank-bone. 
Sprains of the back tendons; of the suspensory ligaments. Wind-galls. 
Sesamoiditis. Sprain of the inferior sesamoid ligaments. Elastic swellings 
in front of the fetlock. Cutting. Bruises on the fetlock. Fracture of the 
pastern bones. Bony growths on the pastern bones. Ringbones. Sprain 
of the flexor tendons behind the pastern. Fractures of the hip-bones ; of 
the outer angle ; of the inner angle ; of the point of the hip ; through the 
shaft of the bone; into the joint. Sprain of the hip. Displacement of the 
Abductor Femoris. Disease of the hip-joint. Dislocation of the hip. Fract- 
ure of the thigh-bone; the neck; the s'laft; the lower end. Fracture of 
the knee-cap. Dislocation of the knee-cap, stifled. Disease of the stifle. 
Fracture of the leg between the stifle and hock ; Tibia ; Fibula. Sprain or 
laceration of the muscle which bends the hock. Sprain of the hamstring. 
Rupture of the hamstring. Capped hock. Displacement of the tendon 



408 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



playing over the point of the hock. Sprain of the flexor tendon behind the 
hock. Thorough-pin. Distension of the sheath of the extensor tendon in 
front of the hock. Fracture of the inner maleolus. Fracture of the point 
of the hock and other hock bones. Bone spavin. Inflammation of the true 
hock joint. Bog spavin. Dropsy of the hock joint. Blood spavin. Curb. 
String-halt. Other causes of lameness. 

FRACTURES OF THE LOWER JAW. 

These take place in the anterior part occupied by the 
front teeth, or more frequently on one side, between these 
and the grinders. In simple fractures with no great tend- 
ency to movement an exclusive diet of soft mashes will 
often suffice, a double halter being so arranged that the 
animal cannot possibly reach either fodder or litter. If 
the fracture is between the front teeth a copper or silver 
wire wound round two teeth on opposite sides of the break 
may fix the parts sufficiently. If further back and very 
mobile, it may still be retained at times by using the 
tushes as fixed points from which to carry the wire. 
Where these cannot be availed of, the jaw may be perfo- 
rated by a fine drill in front of the fracture and behind it, 
and the two parts firmly bound together by a silver wire. 
If this is not available, a mould of gutta-percha or wood is 
made to fit the lower jaw and sides of the face from the 
throat as far as the chin, and this is strapped on by four 
belts, one passing behind the ears, one in front of them, 
one on the middle of the face and one on the nose but four 
inches above the nostrils. The straps may be held to- 
gether by another or a simple cord passing down the 
middle of the face, and the two lower ones should be 
slightly elastic. This should be kept on till union is 
effected and no hard food should be allowed for two 
months. 

In cases of compound comminuted fractures remove all 
foreign bodies and detached pieces of bone, and make an 
opening in the case, through which the wound may be 
dressed with antiseptic liquids (carbolic acid 1 part, water 
100 parts). 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 409 

INJURIES BY BIT AND CUEB. 

These often cause slight fractures or superficial necro- 
sis on the upper or lower borders of the jaw. Extract 
detached pieces or scrape off dead, and when the wound 
has healed drive with a snaffle. 

FRACTUBE OF THE UPPER JAW. 

This is much less serious. If at the anterior part fix 
by wiring the teeth together. If further back and associ- 
ated with discharge from the nose, trephine the sinus (see 
diseased teeth), remove detached pieces of bone and in- 
ject with a weak astringent solution (diseased teeth). 

FRACTURE OF THE BONES OF THE NOSE. 

Here the depression of the space between the nostrils 
and the difficulty of breathing are characteristic. Shave 
the skin above and below the fracture ; make a smooth 
cone of wood, rounded at the apex and just large enough 
to fit the nasal passage ; with this inside the nose raise 
the bone to its proper position and strap it there by strong 
adhesive plaster passing over the interval of the fracture. 
In obstinate cases we can resort to plugging of one nos- 
tril with tow, or of both nostrils if tracheotomy has been 
first performed. 

FRACTURE OF THE FRONTAL BONES. 

If beneath the level of the eye the danger is slight and 
after removal of detached pieces of bone it may be treated 
like an ordinary wound. If above, the depressed bone 
must be raised with a lever to avoid compression of the 
brain when exudation takes place. Fracture of the process 
which forms the upper boundary of the eye-socket may- 
be raised in the same manner to avoid subsequent blemish. 

FRACTURE OF THE CREST OF THE POLL (OCCIPITAL). 

If split straight down and without opening the cranium 
and exposing the brain, the animal should be tied so that 



410 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

the nose is kept habitually protruded and the injury 
treated like a simple wound. It may be needful to use 
astringent lotions or even to make a counter-opening below 
to secure a perfect recovery. 

FRACTURES AT THE BASE OF THE CRANIUM. 

These are usually due to blows on the poll, the shock 
being conveyed through the harder structures and ex- 
pended fatally on the softer bones below. Being in con- 
tact with the most vital parts of the brain and beyond 
the reach of surgical interference such fractures are fatal. 

DISLOCATION OF THE LOWER JAW. 

This sometimes occurs in the dog, from opening the 
jaws too widely in giving pills, etc. The jaw is slightly 
advanced and held open in spite of all attempts of the 
animal to close it. Wrap the thumbs very thickly in 
cloth, and seizing the lower jaw press it forcioly downward 
and backward when it will slip in with a jerk and the jaws 
will close firmly. 

OPEN JOINT BETWEEN THE UPPER AND LOWER JAWS. 

A wound exists midway between the eye and the root of 
the ear, discharging a glairy fluid when the animal chews. 
Fix the jaws by a bridle with straps drawn tightly around 
the nose, feed thick gruels and soft mashes only and treat 
as advised for open joint. 

CANCER (eNCEPHALOID) OF THE ORBIT. 

This occurs in horses and cattle, great, angry, bleeding, 
fungous growths appearing from the soft and hard struct- 
ures about the orbit. The only hope lies in early removal. 

TOOTH-LIKE TUMORS UNDER THE EAR. 

These are manifested by a running sore, just above and 
behind the joint between the upper and the lower jaw, 
With a hard object to be felt at the bottom. Their ex- 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 411 

traction can only be undertaken by one intimately ac- 
quainted with the parts. 

POLL EVIL. 

This is of two kinds : 1st, A simple abscess, the result of a 
blow or other local injury, and which is only serious because 
•)f the strong enveloping fibrous membranes that imprison 
the matter beneath them ; and 2d, disease of the joint 
between the head and the first bone of the neck, or be- 
tween the first two bones. The first, if unrelieved, will 
usually give rise to the second, since the surface of the 
bones becomes the seat of disease which gradually extends 
to and involves the joint. The milder form may be dis- 
tinguished by the superficial position of the swelling and 
fluctuation, and by the comparative freedom and ease 
with which the head is moved, whereas in the other the 
head is carried very stiffly and cannot be moved on the 
neck without extreme suffering. 

Treatment. When seen early with only a slight inflam- 
matory swelling behind the poll and no fluctuation, purge 
and keep a cooling lotion (tincture of arnica 2 oz., iodide 
of potassium 1 dr., vinegar 1 qt., camomile infusion 1 qt.,) 
constantly applied to the part, the patient at rest, and the 
head tied up to the rack. If matter has formed and fluctu- 
ation is felt, however deep, it must be opened at once. 
Select the part where fluctuation is most marked and 
plunge a knife into the cavity. Then with a bent probe 
find the lowest point of the sac and cut down upon this, 
making a large opening from which the matter may flow 
as it forms. A tape should be tied in the wound and the 
sac syringed out daily with a stimulating wash (chloride 
of zinc £ dr., water 1 qt.,) until from the disappearance of 
swelling and matter it becomes evident that the sac is ob- 
literated, when the tape may be cut, pulled half way out 
and left hanging from the lower wound until the upper is 
closed, when it may be completely withdrawn. When 
new sacs of matter appear these must be promptly opened 



412 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

and treated in the same way. A change of dressing is 
sometimes needed as one appears to be losing its effect 
(tincture of muriate of iron 1 oz., water 1 quart). In ob- 
stinate cases it is sometimes needful to lay the sacs open 
by an extensive incision and treat like an ordinary wound. 
But all these operations are only safe in the hands of 
those who are intimately acquainted with the structure of 
the part. 

In case of disease of the bone it may be felt bare at the 
bottom of the sac, by probing, and may be scraped to re- 
move any dead or diseased part, and expose sound bone 
which may undergo the healing process. 

If the joint is implicated the case may be deemed des- 
perate, as it is usually only a question of time for the 
spinal cord to become involved. 

FISTULOUS WITHERS. 

This is analogous to the milder form of poll evil, differing 
only in its site, which is on the spines above the shoulders. 
It is to be treated in the same way, by free incision, the 
formation of a dependent orifice and injections. If the 
spinous processes are diseased they should be removed 
with bone forceps until a healthy surface is exposed. 

FRACTURED PROCESSES OF THE NECK BONES. 

This may arise from muscular effort but more commonly 
results from jamming between two heavy bodies. If on 
one side only, the head is drawn to a side ; and in any case 
the detached piece of bone may be felt among the muscles 
and grating even may be produced by moving it. The 
only treatment is to keep the head in one position until 
the detached parts have become adherent, which they 
usually do with a visible swelling. If abscess or fistula 
forms the detached bone must be extracted. 

TRANSVERSE FRACTURE OF THE BONES OF THE NECK 

These occur from pitching on the head, and are fatal 
from the sudden cessation of breathing. 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 413 

FRACTURE OF THE SPINOUS PROCESSES OF BACK AND LOINS. 

This is detected by the mobility, with or without grating 
of the spines implicated. If comminuted the splinters 
should be extracted ; if simple, replace them and retain by 
a pitch plaster on each side, or with a saddle having a 
high tree and plenty of padding at the sides to support 
the fractured bone. 

SPRAINS OF THE BACK OR LOINS, 

There is inability to back, above all when mounted, or 
to turn quickly in a circle, tenderness at a given spot on 
pinching along the back, drooping when mounted, and 
difficulty in urination from the pain attendant on curving 
the back. It has come on suddenly after slipping, falling, 
bearing a heavy weight, etc., and is independent of fever. 
It is distinguished from partial paraplegia by the per- 
fect sensation in the hind parts, by the absence oi 
any change in their temperature as compared with the 
rest of the body, and by the retention of perfect sensation 
and motion in the tail. 

Treatment. Place in a narrow stall in which the patient 
cannot turn his body or even his neck ; apply slings to 
prevent any attempt at lying down ; foment with warm 
water if there is much pain; when that has subsided, 
blister. It is all-important to give laxative diet, and to 
correct any costiveness or other impairment of the general 
health. 

TRANSVERSE FRACTURE OF BACK OR LOESTS. 

This occurs suddenly from an evident cause, such as 
filipping, over-weighting, a wrong step, or struggling when 
cast for an operation. If displacement has not taken 
place there is an exaggerated manifestation of the same 
symptoms as in sprained back, but if the bones are dis- 
placed, or when the resulting inflammation and swelling 
have produced pressure on the spinal cord, there is para? 
plegia, coldness of the body behind the seat of fracfcur§ 



414 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

though that in front may be hot and perspiring ; the tail 
is implicated in the palsy, and there is much tenderness 
and often a manifest depression of the seat of fracture. 

Treatment. The slighter forms are treated like sprained 
loins. In the more severe, the subject should be de- 
stroyed at once. If after recovery in other respects a 
certain lack of power remains, it must be treated like 
paraplegia. 

LACEEATION OP THE MUSCLES BENEATH THE LOINS. 

This occurs from the hind limbs slipping unexpectedly 
backward or from their going back into a ditch which the 
animal is attempting to leap. The manifestations resem- 
ble those of broken back, as there are difficulty in rising, 
and an imperfect control over the hind limbs, which are 
dragged awkwardly forward and not advanced so far as in 
health. But there is no indication of paralysis and no 
alteration of temperature or sensibility in the hind parts, 
the functions of the tail are perfect, and examination 
through the rectum detects a soft doughy swelling, with 
heat and tenderness beneath the loins. Treatment is by 
slings and fomentations to the loins. If the horse is un- 
able to get up, raise him by block and tackle and he will 
easily stand. Several weeks are wanted for repair of the 
injury and the patient should have a run at grass before 
returning to work. 

PEACTUBE OP THE CE0UP (SACRUM). 

Seen in cattle and less frequently in horses, and caused 
by riding each other or by the fall of heavy bodies on the 
part. There is a manifest depression at one point of the 
medium line of the croup, and the tail usually hangs 
paralyzed. Examination with the oiled hand in the rec- 
tum at once detects the displacement, which is always 
downward. With one hand in the rectum pressing on the 
depressed bone and the other pulling the tail, the bones 
may be replaced and should be held so by a stiff leather 



Special Injuries of Bones 1 Joints and Muscles. 415 

sheath well padded, fixed round the root of the tail and 
connected in front with a surcingle and collar. Recovery 
of power over the tail may be looked for. 

INJURIES TO THE BONES OF THE TAIL. 

Fracture and dislocation are easily reduced and the 
bones maintained in proper place by a bandage. If the 
bones are crushed, or the seat of caries or necrosis, the 
member should be amputated above the injury. Docking 
scissors are best for this purpose, but the organ may be 
laid across a beam and chopped off with one blow of a 
hatchet. The hair should first be removed from the part 
to be cut, and what is above this part tied up to the rump. 
After the amputation the hair is drawn down over the 
stump and firmly tied, as close to it as possible, so as to 
compress- the arteries and check bleeding. In cattle and 
other animals, with short hair on the tails, bleeding may 
be prevented by a flat tape tied round the tail above the 
stump for eight hours, or the arteries may be tied, or 
finally, they may be seared with a hot iron, the part hav- 
ing been first dusted with powdered resin. 

FRACTURED RIBS. 

These usually result from falls, blows and other forms 
of mechanical injury, and may be easily detected by a 
depression or soft part at the seat of fracture. If simple, 
they will be readily repaired under the influence of rest 
and girths to restrict the movements of the chest. But if 
comminuted, abscesses may form or necrosis ensue, de- 
manding the removal of the dead or morbid matters. If 
the fractured ends have been driven in so far as to pene- 
trate the lung a still more serious complication is met. 
The air rushes from the tubes of the lacerated lung into 
the pleural cavity during each inspiration, and as it can- 
not find its way back, the whole of that half of the chest 
is soon filled with air and the lung compressed into a 
small solid mass attached to the lower end of the wind- 



416 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

pipe, and opposite the base of the heart. The lesion 
is thus liable to prove fatal, though if arrested early by the 
exudation of lymph in the wound of the lung, the air may 
be absorbed and recovery may ensue. 

WOUNDS PENETRATING THE CHEST. 

Whether connected with broken ribs or only involving 
the muscles between the ribs, these lead to the accumula- 
tion of air in the chest and collapse of the lung, as when 
a broken rib has torn the lung tissue. The edges of the 
wound, having been driven in, act like a valve allowing the 
entrance of air during the expansion of the chest, but for- 
bidding its escape when that cavity collapses. It is far 
more serious than the accumulation of air in the chest from 
a torn lung, as decomposition and irritation are set up by 
the presence of germs which are filtered out in passing 
through the lungs. Unless the wound is small and can 
be closed early, it is necessarily fatal. 

SHOULDER LAMENESS. 

The lameness which accompanies injuries to the shoul- 
der may be so characteristic as to be recognized at a 
glance. The specific features are, the carrying of the head 
low ; the dragging of the toe on the ground in advancing 
the limb ; the swinging of the foot outward so as to 
describe the arc of a circle in bringing it forward ; and, if 
severe enough, the standing with joints partly bent, the 
heel raised and the toe resting on the ground, but without 
any advance of the lame foot in front of the other. 

TUMOES ON THE SHOULDER. 

Often preceded by chafing or galling, these consist of 
inflammation and suppuration beneath the large flat 
muscle which covers the front of the shoulder (levator 
humeri). The tissues around the matter become thickened 
and indurated to an extraordinary extent, so that it is 
often impossible to detect any fluctuation, yet it may be 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 417 

assumed in all cases of considerable swelling that matter 
really exists, and the recovery will not ensue until that has 
been evacuated. In slight cases only will a little nut-like 
induration form without matter. 

Treatment. In cases in which injury has just been sus- 
tained, suspend work or drive in a breast strap, and treat 
as for chafing. If a tumor forms, first subdue the more 
active inflammation by a dose of physic and a wet rug 
slung over the shoulder for several days ; then open it with 
a knife, or preferably, draw off the liquid once or twice, at 
intervals of two or three days, with a cannula and trocar, 
and then, when the sac has been reduced to a small size, 
lay it freely open with the knife and treat like an ordinary 
wound. In very large tumors it may be necessary to push 
the cannula in as far as four or even six inches before the 
matter is reached, but the operator must persevere, direct- 
ing it always toward the exact centre of the swelling. The 
small solid tumors are to be cut out with the knife, a 
straight vertical incision being made through the skin, 
directly over the mass, which is then dissected out, and 
the skin brought together with stitches and treated like 
a simple wound. 

SPRAIN OF THE COEACO-EADIAL TENDON. SH0ULDEE SPEATN. 

This is a sprain of the large tendon which passes over 
the point of the shoulder (the most prominent part directly 
in front), and in bad cases the double pulley over which it 
plays in front of the upper end of the arm bone is involved 
in inflammation and ulceration. 

Symptoms. Pendent head, dragging toe, swinging out- 
ward of the foot when being advanced, shortness of the 
step, and a tendency to stand with the toe only resting 
on the ground and the limb bent but not advanced. Swell- 
ing of the point of the shoulder is sometimes, though rarely 
seen, but pressure on this point with the thumbs will 
detect tenderness, which is especially marked as compared 
with that of the other shoulder. The pressure should be 
27 



418 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser 

made successively on the inner side of the tendon, on the 
outer and on its centre. 

Treatment. First subdue the inflammation by rest, a 
high-heeled shoe and a wet rug kept hanging continually 
over the shoulder (a blanket folded several times and tied 
round the neck and chest), with or without a purge and 
iestricted diet. "When the heat and tenderness have sub- 
sided apply a smart blister over the point of the shoulder, 
and repeat if lameness persists. In obstinate cases it may 
be needful to use the hot iron, but only on the outer 
side of the joint, and never on the point where the collar 
rests. 

SPRAIN OF THE MUSCLES OUTSIDE THE SHOULDER-BLADE. 

This is a sprain of the muscle which fills up the poste- 
rior cavity on the outer side of the shoulder-blade and 
plays over the outer side of the shoulder-joint (outer tu- 
bercle of the head of the humerus). It occurs mainly in 
young horses when first put to plow or in others going on 
uneven ground and stepping unexpectedly into holes. In 
the endeavor to recover the equilibrium on stepping into 
a furrow or hole, this muscle which forms the outer sup- 
port of the joint is injured and there result heat, swelling 
and tenderness on the outside of the joint and a most 
characteristic gait. The horse may walk, or even trot, 
without much apparent lameness, but standing directly in 
front of him the affected shoulder is seen to roll outward 
from the body to a far greater extent than the sound one. 
Soon the muscle begins to waste rapidly, and in bad cases 
the shoulder-blade may be denuded until it appears to be 
covered by nothing but skin. 

Treatment. In the first stages, with heat, swelling and 
tenderness outside the joint, rest, employ a wet rug, etc., 
as for sprain of the coraco-radial tendon. When this has 
subsided allow exercise on smooth ground (walking, work- 
ing in bight cultivator,) and increase the circulation ovei 
the wasted muscle by active friction with straw or a piece 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 419 

of wood : or by mild blisters (ammonia 1 pt., oil 2 pts. : or 
Spanish flies 1 part, alcohol 25 pts., steeped for 24 hours 
and strained) : or stimulate with a galvanic battery. It 
may take months to refill the cavity, but in all recent 
cases perseverance will be rewarded. In old standing 
cases with fatty degeneration of the muscles, a very par- 
tial restoration only can be effected. 

It must be added that wasting of the shoulder muscles 
is a common result of all lameness entailing disuse of the 
limb and hence many injuries of the feet and elsewhere 
are referred to the shoulder and designated sweeny (Schivin- 
den) by wiseacres. In the absence of the peculiar gait 
above described, of the early heat, swelling and tender- 
ness outside the joint and the rapid wasting of the mus- 
cle, the cause of the sweeny should be sought elsewhere 
than the shoulder. 

DISEASE OF THE SHOULDER-JOINT (INFLAMMATION, 
ULCERATION, ETC.) 

In the large quadrupeds, in which swelling and tender- 
ness on handling are rarely seen, disease in the joint is to 
be mainly distinguished by the general symptoms of 
shoulder lameness and the absence of any of the signs of 
local disease in the tendons, already described. Move- 
ment of the joint by drawing the limb forward, and espe- 
cially by drawing it backward, will usually give rise to 
pain, sometimes of an extreme nature. 

In dogs the capsule of the joint is found to bulge on 
each side of the coraco-radial tendon which plays over 
the point of the shoulder, and tenderness may be shown 
when it is handled. 

Treatment. "When inflammation is very severe rest and 
soothing measures should be first resorted to. In the 
majority of cases it assumes a subacute type and is to be 
treated by a high-heeled shoe, rest and counter-irritants 
Repeated blistering with Spanish flies may suflice, but in. 
obstinate cases and whenever there is reason to suspect 



420 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

ulceration, the hot iron is most serviceable, applied round 
the outer side of the joint only. 

OTHER AFFECTIONS OF THE SHOULDER. 

The shoulder-blade is subject to fracture, ulceration 
and necrosis ; the muscles beneath the bone to lacera- 
tions ; the joint to dislocations (rare in large quadrupeds) ; 
and the lymphatic glands inside the joint to abscess (es- 
pecially in strangles), all of which must be treated on gen- 
eral principles, space forbidding their further notice in 
the present work. Shoulder lameness may further arise 
from liver disease, which see. 

AFFECTIONS OF THE ELBOW AND ABM. 

Lameness in the region of the elbow is characterized 
by the inability to extend the joint fully or to bear weight 
upon it in this condition. In bad cases the elbow and 
knee joints are kept semiflexed when standing still, and 
when walking or trotting the dropping of the head and 
body is extreme, in consequence of a similar flexion. 
Movement of the joint will also give rise to symptoms of 
tenderness. 

TUMORS ON THE POINT OF THE ELBOW. 

These are usually caused by the heels of the shoe when 
the horse lies with his fore limbs bent under him (cow 
fashion) from undue narrowness of the stall. 

Symptoms. There is first a hot, tender swelling, and if 
the source of injury is kept up, this may increase by small 
degrees to a very large size. Soon the swelling fluctuates 
from contained serum and it may remain thus indefinitely, 
the liquid being confined by the tough fibrous walls. Or 
the serum may be absorbed leaving a hard nut-like tumor 
with no sign of fluctuation. 

Treatment. Sooth the early inflammation by fomenta- 
tions or a wet rug hung over the part, and keep on a soft 
laxative diet. If the amount of serum thrown out is 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 421 

limited, it may be entirely re-absorbed by using tincture of 
iodine to remove the swelling. If more abundant let it be 
drawn off with a cannula and trocar and the sac injected 
with compound tincture of iodine diluted in double its 
bulk of water. If this is not available, lay the sac freely 
open at its lower part and heal like a common wound. If 
a hard mass is left beneath the skin it is to be cut out as 
advised for those on the shoulder. 

By way of prevention the stall must be widened, and, in 
the case of animals that will lie on the breast, a pad or 
girdle of two or three inches thick must be strapped round 
the pastern at night to prevent the heel striking against 
the elbow. This pad must be soft, covered with chamois's 
leather, made without a seam on its outer side, and buckled 
above and below so that nothing hard may touch the elbow. 

WOUNDS OF THE ELBOW. 

Wounds in this situation are often complicated with air 
under the skin puffing up the whole region, having been 
pumped in by the movements of the elbow. Rest is 
requisite and the wound may be treated as others. 

FEACTUEE OF THE POINT OF THE ELBOW. 

This is easily recognized, as the leg dangles, bending at 
the elbow and knee, and it is impossible to bear any weight 
on it. On taking hold of the back of the elbow the proc- 
ess of bone is found to be detached and loose. If excess- 
ive swelling prevents this, place the foot upon the ground, 
bend back the knee forcibly and let an assistant raise the 
opposite fore foot. If the bone is broken he will drop, if 
the muscles only are injured he may stand. 

Treatment. If the injury has occurred from a kick, 
which has seriously contused the joint surfaces, all treat- 
ment may be futile, but if not, the case will be hopeful 
and especially in the young. Bring the detached bone as 
nearly as possible into position and retain it by a pad 
placed inside the elbow, and a bandage and splints con- 



422 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

tinued from the foot up. The patient must be placed in 
slings. 

DISEASE OE THE ELBOW-JOINT. 

This must be diagnosed by the general symptoms of 
elbow lameness and by pain in moving the joint, but espe- 
cially when it is fully extended. 

Treatment as for diseased shoulder- joint, the applications 
in this case being made to the elbow. If far advanced or 
if connected with fracture of the lower end of the arm 
bone or of that forming the point of the elbow, it will 
usually be unsatisfactory. 

FKACTUKE OF THE ARM BONE. 

Fracture of the large bone between the point of the 
shoulder and the elbow may occur from blows, or even 
wrong steps, and is often attended by much swelling from 
extravasation of blood. The only resort is to place the 
animal in slings and keep him perfectly quiet. In rare 
cases recovery has taken place with no distortion, the bro- 
ken ends, in a transverse fracture, remaining in apposition. 
Usually they are drawn apart by the muscles and ride 
over each other so that the limb is shortened. Such a re- 
sult is only desirable in breeding horses and in stock for 
dairy or butcher. 

FRACTURE OF THE FORE- ARM. 

Fractures between the elbow and knee in horses or 
cattle necessarily leave the animal unable to rest on the 
limb ; if in dogs or cats one of the bones may be broken 
while the other remains unharmed and weight can still be 
borne. There is trembling of the muscles, distortion 
easily felt on carrying the hand down the inner side along 
the line of the bone, and grating when the limb is moved. 

Treatment. If the fracture is very oblique treatment 
will rarely pay in horses, but if transverse or jagged so 
that the bones do not ride, the case is very hopeful. Set 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles 423 

ting the bones, with the aid of extension and counter- 
extension, or even ether if necessary, applying splints and 
bandages from the foot to the elbow, and placing in slings 
(if a large animal) are the essential conditions. 

SPRAIN OF THE RADIAL LIGAMENT. 

This is an injury of a strong, flat, fibrous band, coming 
from the lower third of the fore-arm and joining the back 
tendons just above the knee. It is characterized by a 
tendency to carry the pastern upright, or even to flex the 
knee and to stumble. The knee cannot be fully flexed 
without much pain, and there is a hot tender swelling 
immediately behind the bone and extending from the knee 
about four inches upward. 

Treat by rest, a laxative, a high-heeled shoe, and fo- 
mentations or cooling astringent lotions ; followed when 
heat and tenderness subside by active blistering should 
lameness continue. 

SPRAIN OF THE BACK TENDONS BEHIND THE KNEE. 
THOROUGH-PIN OF THE KNEE. 

This is manifested by a tense fluctuating swelling on 
each side of the back tendons just above the knee and 
behind the bone of the fore-arm ; also of a swelling behind 
and immediately below the knee, pressure on one of these 
swellings causing the filling up of the others and vice 
versa. There may or may not be much lameness, or im- 
possibility of flexing the knee so as to bring the fetlock 
pad in contact with the elbow. 

Treat the inflammation as in sprained radial ligament, 
and the liquid distension by blister, by bandage and pads 
shaped like half of an egg cut longitudinally, or still better 
by evacuating the liquid with the nozzle of a hypodermic 
syringe, and then applying pressure with wet bandages. 

SYNOVIAL SWELLINGS IN FRONT OF THE KNEE. 

These are of three kinds : 1st, the distension of a bursa 
or formation of a serous cyst under the skin, exceedingly 



424 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

common in heavy cattle ; 2d, distension of the theca of 
one or more of the four tendons which pass over the front 
and outer side of the knee ; 3d, and finally, disease inside 
the knee-joint and distension of its capsule. The first is 
superficial though often possessed of very thick walls, is 
generally diffused over the front of the joint, and is little 
affected by flexion or extension. The distended thecse 
extend vertically along the lines of the tendons, reaching 
above and below the joint and are bound down at in- 
tervals by transverse bands ; their size is little affected by 
bending the joint. Distensions of the joint capsule ap- 
pear in the intervals between the tendons, do not extend 
beyond the joint except in very extreme cases, and disap- 
pear in part or entirely when the joint is bent ; in this 
case the joint is rarely kept fully extended in standing 
and cannot usually be flexed to make the fetlock touch 
the elbow. 

Treatment. For Subcutaneous cysts puncture with nozzle 
of hypodermic syringe, draw off the liquid and compress 
strongly with wet bandages. If this cannot be done, pass 
a tape from above downward through the cavity of the 
sac, and keep in until resulting suppuration has ceased, 
when it may be withdrawn from above downward a little 
at a time. Excess of inflammation may be subdued by 
fomentations and thick wet bandages. 

The distended thecce may be punctured with a nozzle of 
a hypodermic syringe and subjected to pressure, or treated 
with strong blisters (binioclide of mercury 2 dr., lard 1 oz.,) 
repeatedly applied ; or simple pressure will suffice if kept 
up for some weeks increasing the time daily. Setons 
would be dangerous. 

For distended joint see below. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE KNEE-JOINT. 

This may be seen in all stages from that in which the 
animal starts forward perceptibly at the knee and mani- 
fests suffering when you try to fully extend it by strong 



Special Injuries of Bones Joints an d Muse les. 425 

pressure on its anterior surface, to the most violent and 
destructive inflammation with extensive exudation of lymph 
and even the formation of abscess. It tends to leave the 
puffy swellings of its capsule referred to under the preced- 
ing heading, or distinct hard bony enlargements on the 
anterior surface of the joint. The animal stands squarely 
upon his feet with no inclination to raise the heel, and in 
action carries the knee-joint comparatively unbent, takes 
a fairly long step and comes down with greatest force on 
the heels so as to wear the shoe at this point. A rider 
has a peculiar sensation of the chest sinking under him. 
The lameness increases with exercise, especially on hard 
surfaces. 

Treatment. Rest, without shoes ; subdue inflammation 
by soothing applications, after which blister the part. If 
the animal persists in using it too freely, apply splints and 
bandages to fix the joint, and place in slings. 

WOUNDS OF THE KNEE. 

Dislocation of the knee-joint with laceration of the 
lateral ligaments occurs, and though if put in splints and 
slings the patients will sometimes recover with a stiff knee, 
the result is a very undesirable one. 

Beuise op the Innee Side of the Knee. Speedy Cut. 
This usually results from a blow with the opposite foot, in 
horses with high action, in those with narrow chests, or, 
above all, in horses driven in the snow-path. It is mani- 
fested by an inflammatory swelling on the prominence of 
bone inside the joint, resulting in a permanent scar, a 
serous sac or an abscess. Its early or inflammatory stage 
may be treated by lotions of cold water or astringent 
liquids, kept constantly applied; the serous effusion by 
pressure or by drawing off the liquid through a fine tube, 
and then bandaging, and abscess by a free incision with a 
knife or lancet. 

To prevent keep the foot rather bare inside, with the 
shoe slightly beveled from its wearing to its bearing sur- 



426 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

face, allow no ragged nail clinches to project, and re-ad- 
just the shoe sufficiently often (every three weeks). Or a 
boot may be worn extending from the fetlock to the knee 
and with a rim at its upper part to warn the animal when 
his foot approaches this point. 

Wounds w Front of the Knees. Broken Knees. Usu- 
ally sustained in falling, but it may be by striking against 
a manger or other hard object. They are of all degrees 
of severity : 1st, simple loss of hair and slight abrasion of 
the scarfskin ; 2d, a severe bruise of the skin without 
laceration ; 3d, a wound extending no deeper than the 
skin ; 4th, a wound laying bare the tendons and opening 
their sheaths ; 5th, a wound laying open the joint and ex- 
posing the bones with or without laceration of the tendons ; 
and 6th, when the joint is opened and the small bones of 
the knee broken. 

Treatment. 1st, With simple abrasion no treatment is 
needed ; 2d, if much bruised tie short to a high rack to 
prevent lying down and bandage lightly, using a mild 
astringent lotion (sugar of lead \ oz., carbolic acid 60 
drops, water 2 qts.) ; 3d, in all cases in which the wound 
extends through the skin it is desirable to bend the knee 
to the position occupied when wounded so that the deep 
wounds may correspond with the superficial, and wash off 
with a stream of tepid water or soft clean sponge all dirt 
or foreign bodies, but never probe nor run any risk of 
opening cavities which have not been injured. Any shreds 
of tissue which are absolutely dead should be cut off, but 
never remove any skin, however contused, as it will all be 
wanted. Then cutting the hair from the flaps of the 
wound above and below bring them together by straps of 
plaster or tow dipped in shellac paste, leaving sufficient 
intervals for the escape of matter. If the wound inflames 
and swells, give a purgative and dress with the lotion ad- 
vised for bruised knee. In all severe cases it is desirable 
to sling the patient after the first few days to obviate any 
attempt to lie down, which would seriously protract the 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 427 

case; 4th, the exposure of the tendons, with escape of 
glairy synovia, will entail more swelling and fever and per- 
manent enlargement of the joint, but will demand the 
same course of treatment ; 5th, when the tendons are 
crushed or torn and the joint opened, and above all when 
the bones are broken we have cases of increasing severity 
and in few such is it desirable to subject to treatment, un- 
less the patient is to be valuable for breeding purposes. 
Considerable death of tendon and even necrosis and elimi- 
nation of bone may be expected and the patient can only 
recover with a stiff joint. In addition to the measures 
already recommended, it becomes imperative to encase 
the limb up to the elbow in splints and bandages, as for a 
fracture, leaving open the part in front of the knee for 
dressing the wound. 

SPLINTS. 

These are circumscribed inflammations of the perios- 
teum and small bones in the region of the shank, involving 
or not the shank-bones themselves, and resulting in small 
bony swellings. They occur almost invariably on the inner 

Fig. 67. 




Fig. 67— Splint. 

side of the limb, between the large and small bones of the 
shank, and may usually be recognized by running the 
fingers down the slight groove formed between the main 
shank-bone and its small accessory one behind. It usually 
connects the large bone to the small (anchylosis), but may 
be confined to the posterior part of the small bone, or may 
extend across the back of the shank-bone and appear at 
the same level on the inner and outer sides of the limb 



428 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

alike. In old horses it is not unfrequent to find the small 
bone united to the large along two -thirds of its length. If 
situated high up and close to the knee, it is more likely to 
cause continued lameness than if lower down. Again if 
an animal has several splints and other diseases of bone 
he is highly objectionable, as being predisposed to bone 
disease. 

Symptoms. Beside the feeling of the splints on hand- 
ling, as above mentioned, these symptoms may be seen. 
The patient may walk sound, or even trot so, on soft 
ground, but is exceedingly lame when trotted on a hard 
surface, and this lameness increases with exercise. The 
extreme drooping of the head is characteristic. Even 
before the formation of the splint tenderness may be 
shown on pressure, and some little heat recognized. In 
some cases considerable soft swelling may be felt in the 
early stages. In acute cases, threatening abscess, the 
lameness is extreme. 

Treatment. In the early stages, rest, purge, and apply 
cooling lotions. "When heat and tenderness subside, blis- 
ter. Some cases will recover promptly, others require 
repeated blistering and a long period of rest. If heat and 
great tenderness return, resort again to soothing measures. 
In extreme tenderness, threatening the formation of mat- 
ter, the periosteum should be divided with a very narrow- 
bladed knife which is passed through the skin half an inch 
below the swelling and carried up over it. The part must 
then be covered by a wet bandage. 

INFLAMMATION OF TEE MEMBRANE COVERING THE SHANK-BONE. 
SORE SHINS. 

This occurs especially in over-worked young horses. 
Eacers are very liable, but cart-horses are not exempt 
There is general tumefaction of the shank-bone or of some 
part of it, usually the lower, with a lameness greatly re- 
sembling that of splints. If slight and circumscribed, the 
exudation that takes place between the membrane and 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 429 

the bone is ossified, giving rise to permanent thickening, 
and exudation outside the membrane may follow a similar 
course, causing a very considerable swelling. In the more 
severe cases, the abundant exudation, separating the 
membrane from the bone, may cut off the supply of blood 
and entail necrosis ; or the lymph may degenerate into 
pus which burrows beneath the membrane, separating it 
from the bone and destroying the life of the latter. 

Treatment. In mild cases treat like splints. In the 
very severe with great tenderness and doughy swelling of 
the bone, make a series of incisions through the membrane 
covering the bone, with a very narrow-bladed knife and 
by valvular wounds, passing the blade a short distance 
beneath the skin before cutting down on the bone. Then 
apply the lotion advised for broken knees. 

FRACTURE OF THE SPLINT BONES. 

The lower ends of the small bones of the shank are 
liable to be broken, the lesion being made out by the 
swelling at the point and the unnatural mobility of the 
lower end of the bone, though grating is not to be ex- 
pected. No treatment is needed beyond a cooling bandage 
and rest. 

FRACTURE OP THE SHANK-BONE. 

This is broken by kicks, blows, or simply by con- 
cussion in exercise. The superficial position of the 
bone renders all distortion very apparent, and this with 
the impossibility of resting weight on the limb and the 
grating of the broken ends when handled are unmistak- 
able. 

Treatment. If comminuted, as it often is, the animal 
had best be slaughtered. If only compound, hopes may 
be entertained, especially in young animals, an opening 
being made in the bandage to dress the wound. If sim- 
ple and the fracture not too oblique, nothing is easier than 
to set it, to envelop it in a bandage extending over and 



430 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

fixing the knee, and to keep the patient in slings tintil 
union has taken place. 

SPRAINS OP THE BACK TENDONS. 

These are the two cords which form the posterior line 
of the limb between the knee and the fetlock. About 
midway down the shank the front one is joined by a strong 
cord coming from the upper end of the cannon-bone and 
the lower row of small knee bones. This last is by far 
the most frequent seat of sprain, so that the swelling and 
tenderness are observed between the upper half of the 
cannon-bone and the round cord which forms the posterior 
outline of the limb. In other cases the tendons have 
participated in the sprain, and they too are thickened and 
tender from the middle of the shank (the point of junction 
with the ligament) down to the fetlock. In a third class 
the sprain is confined to an inch or two above the fetlock. 
In these the swelling is to the two sides if the anterior of 
the two tendons is injured and backward if the posterior 
is sprained. The symptoms are a stumbling gait, with 
a tendency to stub the toe into the ground and to bend 
over at the knee and fetlock ; an inclination to stand with 
the knee and fetlock slightly bent, the pastern upright or 
the heel a little raised ; then passing the hand along the 
line of the tendons and in front of them in the upper half 
of the bone, the thumb on one side and the fingers on the 
other, any slight thickening is easily recognized, and if 
heat exists and pain on pinching, your suspicions are con- 
firmed. In old bad cases the stay ligament and lower 
half of the tendons are greatly thickened throughout and 
the knee kept constantly bent, sometimes to the extent of 
causing the patient to walk on the front of the hoof. In 
other cases the cords are knotted, hard and wanting in 
suppleness, showing calcification of their substance. 

Treatment. In the early stages of severe cases, rest, 
Bhorten the toe, apply a high-heeled shoe, and apply hot 
fomentation continuously, or cold astringent lotions. 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 431 

When heat and tenderness have subsided the high-heeled 
shoe may be dispensed with, the foot shod level and active 
blisters applied. The preparations of the iodides of mer- 
cury are among the best. In old cases of extreme con- 
traction the tendons can be cut across by a narrow- 
bladed knife with as little external wound as possible, 
and the limb extended to its proper form and retained 
there by splints and bandages until new fibrous tissue 
fills up the interval between the divided ends. The oper- 
ation is performed in the middle of the shank below the 
connection with the stay ligament and is very successful 
in appropriate cases, restoring a helpless cripple to perfect 
usefulness. For the minutiae of the operation the reader 
is referred to our larger work. Calcified, knotted tendons 
are utterly unsuited to it. 

SPRAIN OF THE SUSPENSORY LIGAMENT. 

This structure lies between the shank-bone and the 
back tendons and extends from the back of the lower part 
of the knee to the little bones (sesamoids) which form the 
pulley for the tendons behind the fetlock, with prolonga- 
tions forward on the sides of the pastern to join the ex- 
tensor tendon of the foot. The seat of sprain may be at 
any part but is usually in the lower third of the shank, 
where it divides into an inner and an outer branch. The 
sprain may cause but the slightest perceptible swelling on 
one of these branches or the ligament may be completely 
torn across, the fetlock descending to the ground and the 
toe turning up. Any injury to this ligament is likely to 
cause more persistent lameness than a corresponding in- 
jury to the back tendons, seeing it is a mechanical support 
to the fetlock and is always on the strain when the animal 
stands upon the limb. 

Symptoms. Persistent, often severe lameness, upright 
pastern, stumbling gait or undue lowering of the fetlock 
when weight is thrown upon the limb. Then by bringing 
the fingers and thumb down the line of the cord felt im- 



432 The Farmer 's Veterinary Adviser. 

mediately behind the lower half of the shank-bone be* 
tween it and the back tendons, some enlargement is 
detected with heat and tenderness. In bad cases, with 
descent of the fetlock, the whole length of the cord is 
thickened and the infiltration of the surrounding parts 
gives the whole back of the limb a soft doughy feeling. 
Treatment is much less satisfactory than in sprains of tho 
back tendons but the principles are the same, though 
a much longer period of rest and blistering is usually 
demanded. In severe forms with descent of the fetlock, 
that must be supported by splints and bandages, in the 
same manner as after cutting the back tendons, otherwise 
the limb will be permanently distorted. These severe 
cases, which usually result from the most violent exertions 
in racing or hunting, rarely recover so as to be fit for such 
work in future, though they may be useful for service at a 
slow pace. 

SPEALN OF THE BACK TENDONS VEE THE FETLOCK PULLEY. 
WIND-GALLS. SESAMOEDITIS. 

This is the result of sprains or severe exertions and is al- 
ways associated with round elastic synovial swellings on 
each side of the tendons, familiarly known as puffs or vrind- 
galls. Similar swellings arise, independent of sprains, as 
the result of over-exertion or dropsy of the part. The 
swellings may become solid by coagulation of the lymph 
and may be absorbed or organized, or the inflammation 
may attack the bone, leading to ulceration and bony de- 
posits. Similar bony deposits with or without ulceration 
may take place on these small bones in connection with 
injuries of the suspensory ligament. 

Treatment. Simple wind-galls, dropsical or from over- 
exertion, may be made to disappear by persistent pressure 
with a bandage and pads applied at first two hours twice 
a day, and two hours more every day thereafter, until 
they can be kept on all the time. It may, however, re- 
quire five or six weeks and should be stopped if il 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 433 

causes inflammation in the sac. Another plan is to draw 
off the liquid through the nozzle of a hypodermic syringe 
and apply a firm wet bandage. In some quiet animals 
a weak solution of iodine may be injected, but this is too 
often injurious or at least fruitless, from the irritability of 
the horse. Recent puffs will sometimes disappear under 
strong astringent lotions (oak-bark and alum) or under an 
active blister, or after firing, the contraction of the skin 
during healing appearing to be a principal cause of their 
absorption. 

Where there is sprain with much heat, tenderness and 
tension, treat by rest, purgative, a high-heeled shoe, and 
fomentations or cooling astringent lotions, to be followed 
by blisters when the tenderness subsides. 

Disease of the bones (Sesamoiditis) must be treated 
with severe blisters and even firing, with long continued 
rest, but if ulcers already exist on the gliding surface of 
the bones a complete recovery need scarcely be looked for. 

SPRAIN OF THE INFERIOR SESAMOID LIGAMENTS. 

The ligaments below these pulley-shaped bones behind the 
fetlock are sometimes sprained, causing great lameness 
with swelling and tenderness below the fetlock pad. 
Treat as for injury to the suspensory ligament. 

ELASTIC SWELLING IN FRONT OF THE FETLOCK!. 

These are of two kinds: 1st, a serous abscess or en- 
larged bursa under the skin: and 2d, the distension of 
a large synovial bursa between the extensor tendon and 
the capsule of the joint. The first swells out as a uniform 
rounded tumor on the front of the joint. The second has 
at first the appearance of a double tumor from the swell- 
ing appearing at the two sides of the extensor tendon, and 
it is only in severe cases and advanced stages that these 
meet over the centre. They usually result from pricks or 
bruises, though the second form may be associated with 
sprain. Any existing inflammation should be subdued by 

28 



434 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

soothing measures and a blister applied early to secure 
absorption of the liquid if possible. Should this fail the 
liquid may be drawn off as advised for wind-galls, and the 
part tightly bandaged. Or a free incision may be made 
in the lower part of the sac and wet bandages applied to 
keep down inflammatory action, while the sac is obliter- 
ated by healing from the bottom. 

DISEASE OP THE FETLOCK JOINT. 

This is occasionally the seat of simple dropsical effusion, 
causing it to swell out like wind-galls on the inner and outer 
sides, just above the sesamoid bones. The swellings are, 
however, placed more anteriorly than distensions of the 
tendinous sheath, aud pressure upon them does not cause 
bulging nor fluctuation behind and below the fetlock, on 
the line of the tendons. This is not necessarily connected 
with lameness, though if the result of inflammation of the 
joint, that is more likely. Inflammation of the joint may 
be recognized by the habitual resting of the leg, which 
starts forward at the fetlock, by the appearance of wind- 
galls just described, and by a swelling heat and tenderness 
of the entire joint. Bending the joint fully causes intense 
pain as does also full extension. 

Treatment does not differ from that of other inflamed 
joints. (See page 401.) 

DISLOCATION OF THE FETLOCK. 

This occurs like that of the knee in connection with 
rupture of the lateral ligaments. We have had recoveries 
so as to be very useful for farm work by reducing the dis- 
location and fixing with splints and bandages, but this 
cannot by any means be calculated on. 

BLOWS ON THE rNSIDE OF THE FETLOCK. CUTTING. 

Like cutting on the inner side of the knee, this arises 
from blows received in action. Weak animals with turned- 
out toes and distorted feet are most liable. It is to be 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 435 

treated by soothing measures, and if the bones or joints 
become involved, treat as advised for the respective in 
juries. 

To prevent, let the feet be kept a little bare on the inneT 
side and the shoes slightly leveled off, but avoid lowering 
the foot or thinning the shoe on the inner side. On the 
contrary a very slight thickening of the shoe on the inside 
is sometimes beneficial, by straightening up the fetlock 
and removing it from danger. If this fails wear a leather 
boot with a projecting rim, or a simple woolen bandage. 
In weak subjects benefit is often derived from bringing 
into a better condition of health. 

FRACTURES OF THE PASTERN BONES. 

These are exceedingly common in horses running on 
hard ground or even on soft movable sand. They are of 
all degrees of severity, from a simple split without separa- 
tion of the broken pieces, to a complete shattering of the 
bone into a dozen fragments or more. Simple fractures 
are usually oblique, or even vertical, the bone being split 
in two nearly equal lateral halves, but transverse breaks 
are also seen. 

Symptoms. In shattered specimens the case is easily 
made out and the victim should be destroyed at once. In 
cases of detachment sufficient to allow grating when the 
bones are moved (flexed and extended) there is as little 
difficulty. But in cases of splitting without detachment, 
the parts being held firmly together by the strong fibrous 
investments, the case is liable to be mistaken. There is 
the fact that the injury occurred suddenly during action, 
the horse at once showing lameness, more extreme on hard 
ground ; there is no injury to ligaments nor tendons ; but 
pain when the pastern is fully flexed, and with or without 
swelling on the bone there is a line of tenderness which 
can easily be traced with the fingers and corresponds to the 
fracture. 

Treatment. Place the patient in slings, and if grating 



430 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

is heard apply a strong bandage to above the fetlock. II 
no grating sooth the early inflammation for a day or two ; 
then render the parts immovable by a smart blister on tha 
front and sides of the pastern from the hoof to the fetlock. 
Such cases usually do well, though if the fracture extends 
into a joint the recovery is likely to be imperfect. 

In the smaller animals bandages are requisite for fract- 
ure of the digital bones. 

BONY GROWTHS ON THE PASTERN BONES. RINGBONES. 

These usually begin as inflammation of the membrane 
covering the bones, and at such points as give attachment 
to ligaments, namely : the lateral aspects of the lower or 
small pastern bone, and of the lower end of the upper or 

Fig. 68. 




Fig. 68 — Ringbones — high and low. The rough irregular deposits of new 
bone are shown on the lateral parts of the large and small pastern bones 
respectively. 

large bone. There is a circumscribed, tender and some- 
what elastic swelling, with more or less soft, doughy en- 
gorgement of the investing soft parts, and in course oi 
time the exuded matter, at first soft, becomes hard and 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and 3fuscles. 43 7 

bony. The process in the early stages often appears to 
consist in the dragging of the periosteum and vessels from 
the surface and the development of bone beneath. But as 
the disease advances the whole surface of one or both 
bones may become involved, leading to a general deposi- 
tion of new bony matter, extending, it may be, over the 
joint between the two pastern bones, or between the lower 
pastern and the bone of the foot, and abolishing all move- 
ment. Ringbones may also take origin in partial fract- 
ures, in concussion, in rheumatoid disease, and in faults 
of nutrition, in which the earthy salts are largely passed 
with the urine. 

Symptoms. Lameness may be almost altogether absent, 
or it may be extreme in such cases as are attended by act- 
ive inflammation of the bone or joint, or when the joint 
has become fixed by bony deposit. The heel may be first 
brought to the ground or, in the hind foot, the fetlock 
may knuckle over and the toe strikes first. The lameness 
is worst on hard ground and usually increases with exer- 
cise. Swelling may be scarcely perceptible and confined 
to the inner or outer side of one pastern bone, or it may 
be an extreme enlargement of the whole pastern region. 
It may be hard throughout in old cases, or softer and 
slightly elastic at points where active disease is still going 
on. Forcible bending of the pastern causes much pain, 
as also pressure on the swelling and especially on the 
softer and more recent deposits. 

Treatment Rest, second the indications of nature in 
order to secure an easy position, using a high-heeled shoe 
when the animal walks on the toe and a thin-heeled one 
when he walks on his heel. If there is very active in- 
flammation adopt soothing measures first and then blister 
severely or even fire. Corrosive sublimate and camphor 
20 grains of each, muriatic acid 10 drops and oil of tur- 
pentine 1 oz. is often useful in such cases, but should be 
watched and washed off when sufficient exudation has 
taken place, otherwise it may blemish. In firing it is usu- 



438 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

ally desirable to penetrate the skin in points, but nevei 
keep the hot iron long in contact with it lest the radiated 
heat destroy the integument. It is often needful to allow 
a rest of several months for consolidation of the new de- 
posit. When the joints are much affected the only cure 
is by the growth of bone over them and the abolition of 
movement, and then there remains some stiffness though 
there may be ability for slow work. Old horses recover 
less satisfactorily than young ones. If there is reason to 
suspect a rheumatic complication or any general fault in 
nutrition these must be attended to. 

SPRAIN OF THE FLEXOE TENDONS BEHIND THE PASTERN. 

This is of two kinds, though both in almost the same 
seat. Opposite the first pastern joint the posterior ten- 
don divides into two branches which passing over the in- 
ner and outer sides of the other tendon are inserted on 
the corresponding aspects of the head of the small pastern 
bone. Between these branches the other tendon plays 
over a raised fibro-cartilaginous pulley, its gliding being 
favored by a synovial sac. This last tendon may be 
sprained as it plays over this pulley, in the median line 
of the back of the limb, and either of the branches of the 
other tendon may be sprained close to its attachment on 
the inner or outer side of this pulley. 

Symptoms. Standing quiet the animal keeps the fet- 
lock and pastern joints slightly flexed, the foot advanced 
six or eight inches, the heel slightly raised and the toe 
resting on the ground. In action he steps short and stubs 
the toe into the ground and generally improves as he 
warms up to work. The toe of the shoe wears faster than 
the heel, and the heel in old standing cases may be a lit- 
tle contracted, but it is not unnaturally warm, nor is there 
wincing on tapping the quarter or the sole to either side 
of the body of the frog, with a hammer. This serves to 
distinguish from disease of the small pulley-shaped bone 
of the foot — the misnamed coffin-joint disease. Pressuie 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 439 

on the tendons in the hollow of the heel causes much pain 
and wincing, and the precise seat of injury may be ascer- 
tained from ihe position of greatest suffering — in the me- 
dian line, to the inner side or to the outer. 

Treatment. Shorten the toe, apply a high-heeled shoo 
and surround the pastern with bandages soaked in cold 
water or some cooling astringent lotion. A purgative will 
be useful if inflammation runs high. When heat and ten- 
derness subside, any remaining lameness may usually be 
removed by a blister on the front and sides of the pastern. 

FRACTURES OF THE HIP-BONES. 

Fracture oe the Outer Angle. In young animals a 
little nodule from the extreme angle is often broken off by 
blows before it has acquired a firm connection with the 
parent bone. In the old, the fracture usually extends 
deeper, three, four, or six inches in breadth being often 
detached. In either case the fragment is drawn down- 
ward by the muscles leading to a greater or less flattening 
of the quarter, and it usually becomes attached to the 
parent bone by fibrous tissue or even bony union. In 
some instances, the fragment acting as a foreign body sets 
up inflammation with suppuration and a running sore. 
The slighter cases are not necessarily attended by lame- 
ness but if much bone has been detached, with consider- 
able flattening, there is more or less halting on the limb. 
Treatment consists in keeping the animal still until union 
has been effected, or in case of a running sore a free in- 
cision should be made and the fragment of bone extracted 

Fracture of the Inner Angle near its Junction with 
the Backbone. This is less frequent than the last but 
still tolerably common. It causes considerable lameness, 
and grating is heard when the limb is moved backward 
and forward. The oiled hand introduced through the 
rectum may feel the outline of the bones on the two sides, 
and detect the change from the natural form on the broken 
one. If it has been done for some time, there is a soft 
pasty swelling on the inner side of the bone. 



440 Tie Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

Fracture of the Point of the Hip. As in the case ol 
the outer angle, the posterior one is very liable to sustain 
fracture of a small portion which is developed apart from 
the rest of the bone. In other cases several inches in 
breadth of the bone is detached. In both cases alike it is 
drawn downward so that the prominence on one side of 
the tail is greater than on the other. It may be unat- 
tended by lameness and tends to grow on below, though 
it will sometimes remain detached and form a running 
sore in which case it must be removed by the knife. 

Fractures through the Shaft of the Hip-bone. These 
may be in front of the hip-joint, behind it, or through it. 
Again, they may be simple or comminuted. If the fract- 
ure does not implicate the joint, weight may still be rested 
on the limb, but if through the joint the limb is held use- 
less. The dragging lameness of hip disease is always 
present and grating may be felt by seizing the outer and 
posterior angles of the hip in the two hands while the 
animal walks. Examination with the oiled hand in the 
rectum will enable the observer to ascertain the exact 
seat and nature of the injury. 

Treatment of Fractures of the Hip. If through the joint, 
or much shattered, the animal should be at once de- 
stroyed. If a simple fracture the patient should be put 
in slings and kept still for a month or six weeks. In such 
cases recovery may be expected. 

sprain of the hip. 

This is one of the most common injuries of the hip and 
is located in the tendon of the largest muscle of the but- 
tock as it plays over the large process on the head of the 
thigh-bone. Its exact site is easily found in thin horses 
by the prominence over the joint and midway between the 
anterior and posterior angles of the hip-bone. There is 
the usual dragging hip lameness, a quick short step with 
the affected limb, the hip being moved as little as possible, 
suffering when the member is drawn forward and tender- 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 441 

ness to pressure on the seat of the sprain. Swelling and 
heat are rare because of the depth of the lesion. In cases 
of any standing the muscles of the quarter waste. 

Treatment. Long continued rest, with at first fomenta- 
tions, and later, active and repeated blisters, or even the 
hot iron applied in points. Some chronic cases do well 
under a combination of exercise and counter-irritants as 
follows : rub the affected quarter with oil of turpentine, 
then take out and exercise in a circle until covered with 
perspiration ; then return to the stable, rub down and 
clothe with a double wet blanket over the lame quarter. 
Repeat daily for some time. 

DISPLACEMENT OF THE ABDUCT0E FEMOBIS. 

Lean cattle are subject to a peculiar form of nip lame- 
ness, from displacement backward of the large muscle 
which plays over the prominence at the head of the thigh- 
bone. The high, bony process presses on the anterior 
border of the muscle, preventing it from resuming its 
natural position. The anterior border of the muscle forms 
a prominent painless cord extending from behind the hip- 
joint to below the stifle. In moving, the toe is dragged 
along the ground, being extended backward, and the limb 
is flexed with effort and often in a sudden and convulsive 
manner, and accompanied by a dull sound. These symp- 
toms are most marked if the animal is made to step over 
a bar of six or eight inches high as he leaves the stable. 

Treatment. Some recover under good nourishment with 
or without blisters, but usually it is best to make an incis- 
ion over the front of the cord an inch or two below the 
head of the thigh-bone and cut the border of the muscle 
across with a narrow-bladed knife. The animal may be 
kept quiet by the bull-dog pincers in his nose, and by 
drawing the opposite limb forward with a line passed 
through a collar. 



442 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

DISEASE OF THE HIP-JOINT. 

This may be connected with a partial fracture of the 
bones of the quarter extending into the joint, with lacera- 
tion of the ligaments, with ulceration of the bones, or 
with simple synovitis, from over-work, rheumatism, or 
other cause. The symptoms strongly resemble those of 
sprain of the hip, but there is no pain on pressure upon 
the prominence on the head of the thigh-bone, but often 
much suffering when the limb is drawn outward and 
backward, so as to place the ligaments on the stretch. It 
is attended with wasting of the muscles of the .quarter. 

Treatment. Rest, sling if at all convenient, foment the 
quarter with a thick rug repeatedly folded, and finally 
blister actively or, still better, fire. A long period of rest 
is usually necessary. 

DISLOCATION OF THE HD?. 

This is almost unknown in the horse excepting in con- 
nection with fracture, but is not very uncommon in lean 
cattle and small animals as a consequence of falls and 
dragging of the limb to excess in any one direction. It 
will even happen from extreme dragging of the liinb out- 
ward when caught over a bar. Displacement is usually 
forward or backward. In the former case the limb is 
shortened, the prominence of the head of the thigh-bone 
carried forward and the toe turned out. In the latter the 
limb is elongated, the prominence of the head of the 
thigh-bone carried backwards and the toe turned inward. 
Dislocations inward and outward are also described and 
would be marked by the deviations of the limb from its 
normal position, and the depression or increased promi- 
nence of the head of the thigh-bone. 

Reduction. Lay the animal on the opposite side of the 
body ; maintain the body immovable by a strong sheet 
carried between the thighs and held by several men or 
fixed to a firm object ; attach a band round the linib above 
the hock and let two men drag upon this, or one man 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 443 

carefully with the aid of a block and tackle ; meanwhile 
the operator, seizing hock and stifle, must turn the upper 
part of the limb in a direction opposite to the displace- 
ment. If forward the hock is raised and the stifle de- 
pressed; if backward the stifle is raised and the hock 
depressed; if inward a smooth round billet of wood is to 
be placed between the thighs to act as a fulcrum upon 
which the limb is depressed when sufficiently stretched; 
if outward the lower part of the limb must be drawn out- 
ward and upward, while weight is thrown on the thigh- 
bone ; or by movements of the limb it may be changed to 
a dislocation forward and reduced from that position. It 
may be necessary to relax the muscles by a full dose of 
chloral -hydrate before attempting to reduce. When re- 
duced, the head of the bone slips in with a jerk and an 
audible sound, and the limb assumes its natural position. 
The animal may then be let up, and should be kept quiet 
and alone for several days. These cases do far better 
than could be expected from the anatomical arrangements 
of the part. 

FRACTUKE OF THE NECK OF THE THIGH-BONE. 

This is not uncommon in small animals, especially dogs, 
but very rare indeed in the large quadrupeds. It is marked 
by shortening of the limb, inability to use it, and grating 
when it is moved. If the finger or hand is passed into the 
rectum and pressed against the crest above the hip- 
joint, while an assistant draws the limb outward, the 
prominence of the head of the thigh-bone may be felt 
above the crest. This can only occur in two other 
conditions ; — fracture of the outer rim of the cup receiv- 
ing the head of the thigh-bone, and outward dislocation 
of the hip-joint without fracture. The latter may be dis 
tinguished by the absence of grating, while the first is as 
serious as the fracture of the neck of the bone. 

Treatment is useless in the large quadrupeds, but in the 
small, a firm retentive starch bandage for the whole limb 
will often secure recovery. 



444 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



FRACTUEE OP THE SHAFT OF THE THIGH-BONE. 

This is marked by inability to use the limb, muscular 
trembling, swelling on the inner side of the thigh, and 
grating, felt or heard, when the limb is moved in various 
directions. In the larger quadrupeds nothing can be done 
beyond slinging and quiet, which may prove successful in 
exceptional cases, but in small animals, dogs and cats 
especially, a well applied starch bandage will usually be a 
success. 

FRACTURES OF THE LOWER ENDS OF THE THIGH-BONE. 

These are recognized by great pain and swelling in the 
stifle, with grating when the joint is seized between the 
hands and the limb moved. It may be considered ir- 
remediable in the large animals, and recoveries are imper- 
fect in the small. 

FRACTURE OF THE KNEE-CAP. 

The small bone in front of the stifle is sometimes fract- 
ured either across or vertically, causing local swelling and 
tenderness with inability to use the limb, which is drawn 
backward and outward. It is irremediable. 

DISLOCATION OF THE KNEE-CAP. 

Not uncommon in certain breeds of horses, this usually 
occurs when standing at rest in the stable or rather after 
rising. The limb is drawn forcibly outward and backwai d, 
the foot resting on the toe, and the animal is helpless to 
move it. The bone may be felt displaced at the outer side, 
at what should be the most prominent anterior point of 
the stifle. In young horses it may be attended with ulcer- 
ation of the pulley over which it plays, but, in the adult, 
this is very exceptional. 

Reduction may sometimes be effected by starting the 
animal with a whip, the limb being brought forward under 
the violent effort and the bone meanwhile slipping into 
place. More commonly it is requisite to draw the foot 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 445 

forward, either by simply lifting it, or by the aid of a rope 
having a noose round the fetlock, and passing through a 
collar on the neck. While the limb is being advanced, a 
hand should be placed on the bone outside the stifle tc 
press it into position. When reduced keep on a level (not 
slippery) floor ; apply a shoe with a toe piece projecting 
an inch in front of the hoof, and curved up ; and finally 
put a smart blister on the joint. 

Second Form. A modification of the above is seen in 
horses and cattle, in which the knee-cap is drawn too high 
during extreme extension of the stifle, and then pulled 
outward by the abductor muscles ; its inner lateral liga- 
ment slips into the notch above the pulley, over which the 
bone should play, and the animal remains helpless with 
the limb drawn back as in ordinary dislocation. There is 
a depression in front of the upper part of the stifle, sur- 
mounted by a swelling which is soft, not hard, as it would 
be were the current explanation of cramp of the muscles 
correct. The reduction is by the same method advised for 
ordinary dislocation, and the after treatment identical. 

DISEASE IN THE STIFLE JOINT. 

If between the knee-cap and its pulley the patient usually 
drags the toe on the ground, steps short and brings the 
foot forward with a swinging outward motion. The leg is 
kept half bent when standing, the knee-cap is felt to move 
loosely on the pulley, causing pain, and an elastic fluctu- 
ating swelling is felt beneath it in the intervals between 
the three descending ligaments. In disease of the inner or 
outer division of the true joint the animal stands with it in 
the same position, but in walking it may either be jerked 
up suddenly, or in the worst cases, this joint and the hock 
are carried in a stiff extended position and the principal 
movement is in the hip. An elastic swelling may usually 
be felt beneath the knee-cap but it is less prominent than 
in disease of the pulley, and the bone is less mobile and 
does not cause pain when moved. 



44G The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



Treatment All cases require a high-heeled shoe ex- 
cepting such as are attended with dislocation of the knee- 
cap, in which case a thin-heeled shoe with a projection 
forward at the toe is indicated. Best is essential, and in 
case of very acute inflammation, fomentations should pre- 
cede repeated blistering or firing. A long rest is impera- 
tive. In ulceration of the bones and dislocation of the 
knee-cap in young animals, the fault is mainly in nutrition, 
and a rich diet, tonics, pure air and sunshine are demanded. 

FRACTURE OF THE LEG BETWEEN THE THIGH AND HOCK. 

The principal bone of this region (tibia) lying superficially 
on the inner side of the leg is very liable to fracture from 
kicks. The symptoms are patent enough when the fract- 
ure is complete, the bone hanging useless, and the broken 
ends being easily felt beneath the skin. But in very 
many cases the bone is only split part of the way through 
and the patient may show little lameness, may even do a 
fair day's work or perform a long journey with his broken 
bone. But with the occurrence of the exudation and soft- 
ening around the seat of injury, the bone gives way under 
a slight strain, and thus the fracture appears to have oc- 
curred from getting up in the stall, though several hard 
days' work may have been done since the injury was re- 
ceived. 

Treatment. In all cases of blows on the inner side of 
the leg in which a line of tenderness extends from the 
point of the bone which has been struck, place the animal 
in slings and wait for repair. A compound or commi- 
nuted fracture of this bone need hardly be treated in large 
quadrupeds. A simple transverse fracture may recover 
in slings, with a firm bandage and splints from the foot 
up to above the stifle. I have had a fair recovery even 
with a very oblique fracture, but this should only be at- 
tempted in valuable breeding animals. 

The smaller bone of the leg (fibula) may be fractured by 
falling in shafts or across a pole or beam. The resulting 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 447 

lameness is most puzzling as the broken ends of the bone 
are held together by fibrous tissue, and though they move 
hinge-like no grating is produced. Then the bone is so 
deeply covered by muscle that it cannot be felt. A blow 
on the outer side of the hind leg, just below the stifle, in- 
ducing persistent lameness, with tenderness on pressure 
along the line of the bone on the outer side of the limb, 
and without any other apparent injury, implies fracture of 
this bone. 

Treatment. A month's absolute rest and one or more 
blisters over the seat of injury. 

SPRAIN OE LACERATION OF THE MUSCLE WHICH BENDS 
THE HOCK. 

' This is often sprained at its lower part, and especially 
in its inner branch which passes over the front and inner 
side of the lower part of the hock joint, giving rise to a 
swelling exactly in the seat of bone spavin. It is dis- 
tinguished by its tense, elastic nature and by its position 
on this tendon rather than above or below it. 

Treatment. A smart blister, or this failing, evacuate 
with a fine nozzle of a hypodermic syringe and then apply 
a wet bandage or blister. This form is rarely hurtful. 

When more severely sprained the swelling, heat and 
tenderness may be felt in front of the hock or on the 
anterior and outer side of the stifle according to the seat 
of injury. The limb is usually carried very straight, there 
being little or no bending of either hock or stifle. It is 
to be treated in the ordinary way by soothing measures 
followed by blisters or firing. 

Lacerations of tlve muscle, or more frequently rupture of 
the tendon occurs, causing the hock to be carried straight 
and the shank dangling nearly in a line with the leg. In 
some instances from violent contraction of the extensor 
muscles, the foot may be jerked put backward when the 
patient is started. In injury to the muscle there is at 
first a depression at the part with swelling above and 



448 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

below, but soon the hollow fills up and may become prom- 
inent, soft and doughy. In rupture of the tendon the 
depressed interval, or later, a soft doughy swelling on the 
line of the cord in front of the hock, is sufficiently char- 
acteristic. 

Treatment Rest, and astringent lotions to the part 
(acetate of lead 3 drs., water 1 qt.) These cases almost 
always do well. 

SPRAIN OF THE HAMSTRING. 

This is productive of lameness with manifest pain in 
extending the hock and a jerk in lifting the limb and is 
easily recognized by the firm swelling of the cord above 
the point of the hock. It is to be treated by a high- 
heeled shoe, with fomentations and subsequently blisters 
to the part. 

RUPTURE OF THE HAMSTRING. 

This is much more serious, the hock and fetlock bend- 
ing so as to render the limb useless whenever weight is 
placed upon it. The separation of the divided ends can 
easily be felt through the skin. 

Treatment. If in large quadrupeds place in slings. In 
all apply an immovable bandage, and splints extending 
from the foot to some way above the hock, so as to keep 
that joint fully extended. 

CAPPED HOCK. 

This is of two kinds : 1st, a serous distension of a bursa 
which exists between the skin and the point of the hock ; 
and 2d, sprain of the tendon inserted on the point of the 
hock (gastrocnemius) or of the one which plays over it 
(perforatus). 

1. The distension of the subcutaneous bursa usually 
results from kicks or blows and is to be feared as in- 
dicating vice, but rarely causes lameness. The soft fluctu- 
ating swelling is directly backward from the point of the 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 449 

hock, and may be of almost any size. Slight and recent 
cases may be treated by a purge and soothing lotions to be 
followed as soon as heat and tenderness subside by a 
smart blister (iodide of mercury 2 drs., lard 1 oz.) Should 
the sac remain, evacuate with the nozzle of a hypodermic- 
syringe and apply a wet elastic bandage ; or open by a 
small orifice below and heal like an ordinary wound. To 
"prevent its repetition is a much more difficult matter as it 
usually implies the cure of a vice. Stretching prickly 
bushes or chains behind him, tying chains or logs to the 
limb above the hock, or applying hobbles are all more 
likely to ensure permanent injury to a nervous animal 
than to cure him of his vice. A kicking strap will often 
succeed in harness. 

2. In case of sprain of the tendons, the swelling takes 
place at the two sides and above rather than at the point 
of the hock. It is more or less tense but elastic and even 
fluctuates on pressure. It is often attended with severe 
lameness which may become permanent in connection with 
ulceration of the bone. It is to be treated like an ordinary 
sprain by high-heeled shoe, and fomentations or cold 
astringent lotions, followed by blister. If swelling remains 
it may be punctured and compressed as in the first form 
of capped hock, but a seton should not be used. 

DISPLACEMENT OUTWAED OF THE TENDON PLAYING OVER 
THE P0LNT OF THE HOCK. 

This is a rare occurrence, the tendon being traceable as 
a firm cord across the outer side of the bone in place of 
over its summit. It seems impossible to restore it to its 
place, as the band which fixed the tendon to the inner part 
of the bony process has given way. Fortunately the 
animal is often little incommoded after the subsidence oi 
the preliminary inflammation, and I have known one do 
excellent carriage work, the only objection being the un- 
sightliness of the hock. 

29 



450 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

SPEAIN OF THE FLEXOR TENDON (PERFOEANS) BEHIND THE 
HOCK. THOROUGH-PLN. 

This tendon plays over the back of the hock, to the 
inner side of the bony process which forms its point, and 
has a large synovial sheath extending above and below the 
joint. When sprained at this point there is lameness, a 
tendency to knuckle over at the fetlock, and a round, tense, 
elastic, fluctuating swelling on each side in front of the point 
of the hock and in the hollow between the hamstring and 
the bone. Pressure on the one side causes bulging on the 
other, and pressure on both causes fluctuation on the line 
of the tendon below and behind the hock. 

Treatment. A high-heeled shoe, rest, fomentations, 01 
cooling lotions and a purgative. When heat and tender- 
ness subside, blister, repeatedly, or even fire when there 
is reason to suspect disease of the bone. When all lame- 
ness has passed off leaving only a puffy swelling, or when 
that has appeared without lameness as the result of work 

Fig. 69. 




Fig. 69 — Spring bandage for thorough-pin. 

or as a dropsical effusion, apply a spring bandage with two 
smooth round pads pressing on the inner and outer swell- 
ings. The accompanying cut may enable any saddler to 
construct such an instrument, the spring being made of 
good spring steel and covered with leather. 

DISTENSION OF THE SHEATH OF THE EXTENSOR TENDON IN 
FEONT OF THE HOCK. 

This causes a tense fluctuating swelling at the front and 
outer side of the hock. It is rare and not usually injur i- 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 45 1 

ous, but may be treated like similar synovial swellings 
elsewhere. 

FRACTURE OF THE INNER MALLEOLUS. 

This consists in fracture of the bony prominence on the 
inner side of the hock at its highest point. It usually re- 
sults from a blow with the opposite foot in fighting flies. 
There is more or less swelling of the part, with an un- 
natural mobility of the process and in some cases dis- 
tinct grating. It is not unfrequent to have a wound in the 
skin and a flow of glairy synovia from the opened joint. 
In other cases, independently of fracture, there is inflam- 
mation and enlargment of the bony eminence. 

Treatment. Rest is imperative, as the fracture often 
implicates the joint. If synovia escapes use a sugar of 
lead lotion (1 oz. to 1 pt. water and 60 drops carbolic 
acid), or even apply a blister around the joint, leaving the 
space of an inch around the wound untouched. In other 
cases rely on soothing applications, followed by blisters 
when heat is diminished. Such cases usually do well, even 
an open joint being harmless from the wound being at its 
upper part. Even pieces of bone may be taken out with 
portions of the joint surface and yet a satisfactory recovery 
ensue. 

FRACTURE OF THE POINT OF THE HOCK. 

This may merely implicate the extreme summit of the 
bone in young horses or it may occur lower down in the 
middle of the bony process. There is much lameness and 
difficulty in bringing the foot to the ground, the limb being 
often kept raised and semi-flexed, and the detached por- 
tion may be felt in front of the point of the hock, or a line 
of tenderness may be detected across the middle of that 
bone, detachment and grating being obviated by the strong 
fibrous investment. 

Treatment. If a portion has been detached from the 
summit, place in slings, extend the joint and replace it, 



452 The Farmer's Veterinary Advuer. 

retaining it in position by firm pads of tow placed in the 
hollow in front of the bone and a strong starch or plaster 
bandage extending from the hoof to beyond the hock. 
"When there is no detachment, soothe the parts till heat 
and tenderness subside and then blister, allowing a long 
period of rest. 

FRACTURES OF THE OTHER HOCK BONES. 

If these implicate the upper or true hock joint, they are 
usually beyond remedy, but if the lower flat bones only, 
they present symptoms like those of bone spavin, and may 
recover by union of the small bones. 

BONE SPAVIN. 

This consists in disease (inflammation, ulceration, bony 
deposit,) of the small flat bones in the lower and inner 

Fig. 70. 




Fig. 70 — Bone Spavin affecting both inner and outer sides of the joint. 

part of the hock joint, often implicating those of the outer 
side as well. It may be manifested by local swelling, 
heat and tenderness, or these may be altogether absent 
as in cases of ulceration in the centre of the joint between 
the flat bones — ( Occult Spavin) . The swelling, when it does 
exist, is on the antero-internal aspect of the lower part of 
the articulation, to be seen by standing about two feet from 
the fore limb and looking across the front of the joint. 
It is hard and to be distinguished from the tense, elastic 
swelling caused by sprain of the inner branch of the 
flexor tendon, and from the soft distended vein (so- 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 453 

called blood spavin) which, passes across this part of the 
joint. The bony swelling may be more to the front, or 
more backward on the inner side of the hock, or it may 
even show mainly on the outer side. It frequently im- 
plicates the head of the shank-bone, and in bad cases may 
extend up to the true hock-joint and even abolish its 
movement. Lameness, which is usually present in re- 
cent cases and is the only symptom in occult spavin, is 
shown by moving stiffly on the toe, when the horse is 
turned from side to side of the stall. The same stiff walk- 
ing on the toe is seen for the first few steps in starting, 
after which it disappears, but there remains a stiffness 
and lack of bending in the hock and stifle joints which a 
little practice will enable one to recognize. There is 
sometimes, however, a jerking up of the limb as in string- 
halt. If turned quickly in a narrow circle the animal drops 
on the limb, carries it stiffly or even rests on the toe only. 
If the lameness is only moderate it will usually disappear 
when the patient becomes warmed up at work, hence the 
propriety of placing him in a quiet stable for twenty 
minutes before examination. 

Treatment. Best ; a high-heeled shoe ; fomentations 
and laxatives are appropriate to the early inflammatory 
stages. Later, counter-irritants are demanded. Blisters 
of any kind will usually succeed. The hot iron is perhaps 
even more efficient. Deep firing in points is especially 
beneficial. Some cases will resist all these modes of treat- 
ment, but recover after section of the flexor tendon which 
passes over the swelling. Other methods are pursued 
with variable success. All may do well in young horses with 
no constitutional infirmity, and all will fail in some old 
subjects. 

INTLAMMATION OF THE TKUE HOCK JOINT. BOG SPAVTN. 

Inflammation of the upper or principal joint of the hock, 
where nearly all the movement takes place, occurs from 
overwork, sprains, rheumatism, punctures, wounds, fract- 



454 The Farmers Veterinary Adviser. 

ures, etc. There is a puffy fluctuating swelling with heal 
and tenderness on the antero-internal side of the uppei 
part of the joint, where in the natural state there is a hol- 
low or depression. There is also a similar swelling behind 
in the seat of thorough-pin but distinguishable in that it 
can be pressed forward by compression, the anterior 
swelling meanwhile filling up, but there results no swell- 
ing below and behind the hock as in thorough-pin. The 
lameness resembles that of bone spavin, but there is per- 
haps more tendency to a jerking up of the limb. The 
disease may go on to ulceration of the joint, to bony de- 
posit, and even to anchylosis with abolition of all move- 
ment. 

Treatment. Rest, and use a high-heeled shoe. In case 
of very violent inflammation use soothing measures (fo- 
mentation), and when extreme heat and tenderness have 
subsided use blisters as for bone spavin, or still better, the 
hot iron applied lightly at nearly a white heat. 

Open joint is to be treated here as elsewhere, an active 
blister being often of great advantage in arresting move- 
ment, closing the wound and abating inflammation. 

Bog spavin is most obstinate in old animals and in 
rheumatic constitutions with cracking of the joints in 
starting a walk. 

DEOPSY OF THE HOOK JOINT. BOG SPAVIN. 

An excessive secretion of joint-oil, from over-exertion, 
or a dropsical effusion into the cavity of the joint pro- 
duces a swelling having all the characters described above, 
but without heat, tenderness or lameness. It may some- 
times be benefited by a blister or even by a bandage wet 
with some strong astringent lotion, but as it is only a 
blemish and does not interfere with the animal's useful- 
ness it is best, as a rule, to let it alone. 

BLOOD SPAVIN. 

This is a dilatation of the vein which runs over the 



Special Injuries of Bones, Joints and Muscles. 455 

seats of bog and bone spavins and being harmless should 
not be interfered with. 

CU11B. 

This is a swelling, at first soft and doughy, but later 
hard and resistant, in the median line of the limb and 
just behind the lowest part of the hock joint. It is best 
seen by standing to one side of the limb and looking di- 
rectly across it. The injury is usually a sprain of the 
tendon (perforatus) which plays over the front of the hock, 
though in some bad cases the ligament of the hock be- 
neath this is injured as well. There is heat and tender- 
ness with more or less lameness and a tendency to knuckle 
forward at the fetlock. Gurby hocks are congenital in 
some horses and cannot be looked on as disease, but 
rather distortion. 

Treatment Keep quiet, put on a high-heeled shoe, and 
apply hot fomentations or cooling lotions until inflamma- 
tion moderates, when an active blister may be applied. 
In some severe cases this may require to be repeated or 
resort must be had to the hot iron, but this is altogether 
exceptional. 

STRING-HALT. 

This is the name given to a habit of suddenly jerking 
up the hind limb when raised from the ground. It may 
be shown only in turning from side to side in the stall 
and in starting, or it may appear in walking and trotting 
as well. Again, the jerk may be comparatively slight, or 
so extreme that the fetlock may even strike the belly. 
Its cause is often contraction of the tibial fascia, though it 
is a reflex nervous act and may perhaps be determined by 
a variety of local injuries. If any such can be found they 
should be corrected. Section of the tibial fascia often 
succeeds. The affection is usually aggravated with time 
and the animal is sooner fatigued and worn out than other 
horses. 



456 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

OTHER CAUSES OF LAMENESS. 

See Lymphangitis, Embolism, Farcy, Dropsy, Grease 
Horse-pox, Mammitis, Rheumatism, Cramps, Palsy, Live/ 
Disease, etc. 



CHAPTER XX. 
DISEASES OF THE FOOT. 

General causes. Maxims for shoeing. Disease of the bony pulley and 
flexor tendon of the foot. Pedal Sesamoiditis. Podotrochilitis. Navicular 
disease. Coffin-joint lameness. Side-bones. Fractures of the bones of the 
foot. Inflammation of the foot. Laminitis. Founder. Chronic Laminitis. 
Convex soles. Pumice foot. Cracks in the hoof-wall. Sand-crack. Quar- 
ter-crack. False quarter. Horny tumor of the Laminae. Corns. Bruises 
of the sole. Pricks and binding with nails. Incised wound of the sole 
Distortions of the coffin-bone. Contraction. Treads on the coronet. Fist- 
ula of the coronet. Quittor. Powdery degeneration of the deep parts of the 
wall. Seedy toe. Inflammation of the secreting membrane of the frog with 
discharge. Thrush. Canker. Simple foot-rot in cattle and sheep. Con- 
tagious foot-rot. Foot-rot from Tuberculosis. 

Nearly all of these pedal diseases are directly or in- 
directly the result of faults in shoeing, and the absence of 
care for the feet. Here, accordingly, it would be appro- 
priate to describe the structure and functions of the foot, 
and to lay down the rational principles of shoeing. But 
our space forbids more than the merest mention of points 
which are absolutely indispensable to the understanding 
of what is to follow. 

The internal frame-work, or skeleton of the horse's foot, 
consists of three bones: — the lower end of the coronet 
(small pastern) bone, which corresponds to the upper 
margin of the hoof; the coffin (pedal) bone, which is im- 
bedded inside the hoof and has a similar imperfectly con- 
ical outline; and a long narrow pulley-like bone (small 
sesamoid, or navicular) extended across the back part of 
the coffin-bone, its upper aspect forming a prolongation 
backward of the joint surface, while its lower face is cov- 



458 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

ered by fibro-cartilage, and constitutes a pulley, over which 
plays the flexor tendon of the foot. These are subject 
to like injuries with similar parts elsewhere. Thus the 
bones are liable to fracture, to absorption from pressure, 
to ulceration, to bony outgrowths, to induration, to soften- 
ing, to death and exfoliation, in connection with pricks 
with nails or other sharp bodies. The joint is subject tc 
inflammation, in connection with wounds, rheumatism, 
overwork, etc. The flexor tendon is exposed to sprains, 
and, together with its synovial sheath and the sesamoid 
bone, to inflammation, ulceration, and the formation of 
new structures, which impair or destroy the functions of 
the part. 

The posterior third of the hoof has for its frame-work 
an elastic cushion, which makes continuation of the bones 
backward, without maintaining their rigidity. This cush- 
ion comprises two lateral fibro-cartilages that extend 
backward from the heels of the coffin-bone, and the upper 
elastic borders of which may be felt under the skin, just 
above the hoof, in the region of the quarter ; also in the 
median line and continuous laterally with the cartilages, 
a thick pad of white and elastic fibres, corresponding in 
position to the horny frog, and known as the elastic frog. 
These are subject to inflammation, suppuration, ulcera- 
tion, ossification, fractures, necrosis, etc. In its healthy 
condition this cushion obviates the shocks, jars, concus- 
sions, bruises (corns), fractures and lameness which 
would necessarily result were this region occupied by 
unyielding bone. It further allows of expansion of the 
heel under continuous use and application of moisture, 
and its contraction under prolonged disuse and drying. 

Covering this bony and elastic frame-work is a dense 
fibrous net-work, with interspaces and canals for the pas- 
sage of blood-vessels and nerves, firmly bound to the bony 
and elastic structures by its deeper surface and to the hoof 
by its superficial. On the outer surface of this fibrous 
net-work is the membrane secreting the horn. The part 



Diseases of the Foot. 459 

which forms the hoof-wall is prolonged as a band around 
the upper margin of the wall, and from the heels forward 
above the cleft at each side of the frog. It is shaggy 
throughout with soft conical processes (villi), from ^ to 2 
lines in length, which extend into the horny tubes and 
secrete them. The membrane forming the sole is covered 
by similar villi which pass into the horny tubes of the sole, 
and that covering the elastic frog has corresponding but 
smaller villi. Between the fibrous net-work and the inner 
surface of the hoof-wall and bars, the mode of union is 
by a series of 500 to 600 leaves (laminae) projecting on an 
average 1^ or 2 lines, and each having on its lateral aspects 
from 30 to 60 microscopic secondary laminae. These are 
interleaved with the same number of primary and second- 
ary horny laminae forming an extent of connecting surface 
which would beget incredulity if named. These inner 
fibrous and vascular laminae secrete the horny laminae that 
are interleaved with them, besides giving off an amount of 
moisture, which being absorbed by the cells of the adjacent 
horny wall, serves to keep that soft, yielding and tough. 
So intimate is the union between each of these secreting 
surfaces and the horn covering it, that the fibrous net-work 
will often be torn from the bone, rather than the horn from 
the sensitive parts. This is above all true of the laminae. 
This close connection further renders active inflammation 
in these structures acutely painful, for there being no loose 
tissue to yield to the exudation, it compresses these dense 
structures and violently tears them apart. Thus extensive 
effusions of serum or pus endanger separation and shed- 
ding of the hoof. A less acute inflammation of any oi 
those secreting surfaces leads to the production of un- 
healthy horny growths. Thus disease of the secreting 
membrane at the coronet will determine a bulging, ragged, 
brittle line of horn from above downward on the hoof- 
wall, or, what is worse, a crack or fissure extending to the 
quick. Disease of the laminae will determine the forma- 
tion of a great mass of soft, spongy, yielding horn between 



460 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

the horny laminae and the hoof-wall, causing a falling in 
of the wall anteriorly, and a descent of the margin of the 
coffin-bone so that it will press upon and even perforate 
the sole (pumice foot). In other cases there is merely a 
circumscribed horny growth pressing inward on the quick 
at a particular point (keraspliyllocde). If the secreting sur- 
face of the sole is involved similar horny tumors may be 
formed, as in corns. Disease of the secreting membrane 
of the frog may determine an unhealthy secretion from the 
cleft (thrush) or an excessive growth and loss of cohesion 
of the horny fibres (canker). 

In addition to these disorders originating in the deeper 
structures we have a further list that take their origin in 
unnatural states of the horn. And for these the current 
modes of shoeing are mainly chargeable. 

At all points the hoof undergoes a steady condensation 
from its inner to its outer layers. In a transverse section 
of the hoof-wall the deeper tubes are open, spacious and 
surrounded by soft, yielding, elastic horn, while those 
near the surface are exceedingly minute and surrounded 
by a far greater amount of dense, hard and exceedingly 
resistant horny matter. The outer surface is especially 
close in its texture, and as the tubes run through the 
whole length of the wall to its lower or wearing surface, 
where they are closed by attrition, comparatively little ex- 
halation of moisture can take place from this part of the 
horn in its healthy state. But it is far different when the 
dense surface layer has been removed by the rasp, and 
the open ends of the tubes exposed all over the sur- 
face of the wall. Then evaporation and drying go on 
rapidly, the hoof becomes hard and brittle and follows its 
constant tendency, when dry, to turn in at the heels and 
coronet, causing absorption of the parts beneath and lay- 
ing the foundation of disease. 

The sole and frog naturally increase in density from 
the quick outward, but the horn breaks up into plates be- 
fore becoming detached, the plates being separated from 



Diseases of the Foot 4(51 

each other and from the tough elastic horn above by lay- 
ers of powdery horn, which serve along with the plates tc 
protect from bruises and check evaporation. In their 
healthy state, therefore, sole and frog are as well pro- 
tected against evaporation, drying and shrinking as is the 
wall. But the case is altered when, with buttress or 
drawing-knife, these native protectors are removed and 
the tough elastic horn is laid bare. Then each horny 
tube exhales its moisture, the horn dries and shrinks, 
drawing inward the lower borders of the hoof-wall and 
pressing upward, often painfully, on the quick. Nor can 
the sole any longer bear contact with hard bodies, but 
bruises and injuries are the constant result. 

The injury in both cases may be lessened somewhat by 
the use of suitable hoof ointments but the process may be 
likened to that of supplying a man with a wooden leg 
after you have ruthlessly cut off his own sound one. The 
substitute may permit of the limb being used but the dif- 
ference, in utility, safety and durability, is almost infinite. 

Among other injuries by shoeing may be mentioned un- 
equal strain thrown on different parts of the hoof for want 
of a uniform bearing on the shoe ; bruises of the sole 
from the shoe being improperly fitted, or left on too long 
until it has grown out over the shoe, or been drawn for- 
ward by the excessive growth at the toe until the heel 
settles on the sole between the wall and the bars ; misdi- 
rection of the bones and joints by leaving one side of the 
hoof much higher than the other, or by leaving the toe or 
heel unnaturally long or short; pricks and binding by 
nails, etc., etc. Long-continued compulsory idleness in a 
stall, exposure to prolonged moisture, with intervals of 
drying, and continued contact with decomposing liquids, 
and to the irritating ammoniacal fumes of dung and urine 
are further destructive conditions for the horn. 

Maxims for Shoeing. The proper care, preparation and 
preservation of the foot is of far more consequence than 
the form of the shoe. The hoof must be preserved from 



462 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

knife and rasp, excepting the line around its margin and 
lower surface on which the shoe is to rest. This may be 
pared or rasped, as a rule, until the elastic horn of the 
sole is reached, and forms, with the lower border of the 
wall, a continuous smooth bearing surface of a breadth 
equal to perhaps one and a half times, or twice the thick- 
ness of the latter. But this only in a perfect foot. One 
that has a ragged furrow between the sole and wall can- 
not be treated in this way. Both sides, inner and outer, 
must be left perfectly uniform in height. The height of 
heel and toe must be determined by the natural form of 
the foot, excess and deficiency being alike avoided. As a 
rule paring has to be done mainly or alone at the toe, but 
in some cases the heels grow excessively as well. While 
avoiding paring out of the heels and bars as the prolific 
cause of corns, we must equally avoid the retention of 
hard flakes of horn in this situation, where, imprisoned 
by the hoof- wall, the bar and the shoe, they act as foreign 
bodies and bruise the heel, as would a stone or a mass of 
hardened clay. That part of the sole which is uncovered 
by the shoe may have the surface-flakes removed with a 
blunt instrument, but should never be touched with a 
knife. The frog need never be touched, though there is 
no harm in removing ragged hanging shreds and patches. 
The sharp edges of the hoof-wall should be slightly 
rounded with a file to prevent splitting. The shoe should 
be of a weight proportionate to that of the horse and to 
the work expected of him, and of a breadth of web 
adapted to the protection demanded by the nature of the 
sole. Its upper or applied surface may be perfectly 
level, unless when an unhealthy convex sole demands that 
it shall be leveled off toward its internal border. Its 
outer border should exactly correspond to the margin of 
the hoof-wall, without projecting beyond it, or requiring 
that the wall be cut down to its dimensions. "When ap- 
plied the upper surface should fit accurately at all points 
to the hoof. Bad as it is for horn to be seared, it is bet- 



Diseases of the Foot. 463 

ter to apply the shoe, momentarily, at a dull red heat, 
that any imperfection in fitting may be detected and rem- 
edied, than to hurry on a shoe which bears unequally on 
different points. If the sole joins the wall without a 
break, the two forming one continuous bearing surface, 
and if both are of their natural thickness, the shoes are 
better to be coarsely fullered and the nails driven low, 
the fullering becoming finer and the nails being driven 
lower as we proceed from before backward, especially on 
the inner side. When the nails have been drawn up and 
riveted any roughness of the rivets may be removed with 
a file, but this should not touch the hoof if it is possible 
to avoid it. In turning down the clinches better make a 
slight depression beneath each with the point of the draw- 
ing-knife than an extended transverse furrow with the 
rasp, as is usually done. Remove the shoes before the 
hoofs have overgrown them so as to allow them to settle 
on the sole, and above all before the growth of the toe 
has drawn the shoe forward and let the heel press upon 
that part of the sole. 

DISEASE OP THE BONY PULLEY AND FLEXOE TENDON OF THE 
POOT. PEDAL SESAMOIDITIS. PODOTKOCHILITIS. NAVIC- 
ULAR DISEASE. 

This affection, misnamed Coffin-joint Disease, implicates 
the lower surface of the small sesamoid bone of the foot, 
its synovial sac and ligaments, and the flexor tendon 
which plays over it. 

Causes. It is especially the disease of fast horses, and 
may be largely charged to friction between the tendon 
and its bony pulley, to overwork and concussion. But it 
may also depend on injuries to the foot from bad shoeing ; 
undue paring; setting in of the shoe on the sole; im- 
prisoned flakes of horn acting as foreign bodies ; bruises 
from stones or hardened clay ; rasping, hardening and 
contraction of the foot ; drying and shrinking of the foot 
from standing too long idle in the stall ; injury to the 



464 The Farmer's Veterinary A iviser. 

quick from uneven bearing of the shoe in connection with 
misfitting shoes or breaking of the hoof- wall; injuries 
from nails driven into the quick or picked up on the road ; 
a rheumatic constitution ; impaired nutrition with in- 
creased elimination of phosphates from the system ; or an 
extension of disease from the digestive organs as in an 
over-feed of grain, or a drink of cold water when hot and 
fatigued, etc. 

Symptoms. Pointing the affected foot eight or ten 
inches in advance of the other, with the heel slightly 
raised when standing quietly in the stable. This symptom 

Fig. 71. 




Fig. 71 — Ulceration of the small sesamoid bone ot the foot, and distorted 
heels of the coffin-bone. 

may last for months before lameness is shown. Stepping 
short and on the toe with a great tendency to stumble 
when first moved from the stable, which lameness may 
entirely disappear after going a mile or two. It is worse 
when cooled off after a long drive, but it may appear in- 
termittently while at work, as occasional stumbling or 
dropping on the sound foot for some time at first. The 
toe of the shoe is more worn than other parts owing to the 
peculiar gait. The foot feels hot, especially in its poste- 
rior part, and in acute cases the soft parts may bulge over 
the coronet and the pastern arteries throb with unusual 
force. The foot too, soon diminishes in size, especially in 



Diseases of the Foot 465 

the quarters and heels, where the heat, drying and disuse 
are greatest. Testing the margin of the hoof with pincers 
will not elicit tenderness, unless there is accompanying 
disease of the lateral parts of the foot (corns, bruises, 
pricks, absorption or distortion of the heels of the pedal 
bone, side bones, etc.,) but tapping the sole with a hammer 
on each side of the body of the frog, or striking the wall 
in the region of the quarter will cause the patient to flinch. 
Pressure with the thumb over the middle of the flexor 
tendon, on its inner side or on its outer, as deeply as can 
be reached in the hollow of the heel, the foot being bent 
back, causes suffering. There is more or less wasting of 
the muscles of the limb from disuse, but this is especially 
marked on the breast, above the elbow and outside the 
shoulder-blade. Hence the disease is usually referred to 
the shoulder as sweeny. It is most readily confounded 
with sprain of the flexor tendon behind the head of the 
small pastern bone, but is easily distinguished by the heat 
and contraction of the heels and the tenderness of the 
centre of the sole and the quarters to strokes of the ham- 
mer. To distinguish it from other diseases of the feet 
I must refer to these individually. 

Treatment. Usually unsatisfactory except in certain 
recent cases. First soothe inflammatory action, give a lax- 
ative (aloes), remove the shoes, shorten the toe, and keep 
standing from morning to night in a puddle of wet clay 
without stones or gravel, in which the animal will sink to 
the top of the hoof. At night place in a comfortable dry 
stall with a poultice on the diseased foot. Unless the in- 
flammation is severe, apply a mild blister to the front and 
sides of the pastern. If not applied at first this should be 
resorted to as soon as inflammation moderates, and is to 
be repeated when the effects of the first pass off. Cases 
that resist this treatment will frequently recover under the 
action of a seton passed through the frog, and a run for a 
month or two in a damp pasture free from stones. The 
recovery may be a restoration to perfect soundness, when 
so 



466 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

the surface of the bone lias not been diseased, or it may 
be a removal of lameness in connection with a union of • 
the bone and tendon when the surface of the former has 
been the seat of disease. In the last named case, the 
recovery is likely to be the more permanent, while many 
cases of apparent recovery, in the early stages, are followed 
by relapse. The frog seton is introduced at the hollow of 
the heel and brought out at the body of the frog, but as 
there is much danger of wounding the tendon or bursa in 
incompetent hands, it can only be safely undertaken by 
the veterinary anatomist. 

All other methods failing, resort is often had to cutting 
the nerves passing to the foot, so as to remove all sensi- 
bility. This should never be done unless the feet can be 
carefully picked out and sponged every time the animal 
returns from work, and kept covered with thick wet swabs 
all the time he stands in the stable. Neglect is sure to be 
followed by rapidly advancing disease in the bone, exten- 
sion of inflammation to the structures around, abundant 
exudation, and destruction of bones and joints. Even 
with the best of care this will occur in the advanced stages 
of the disease, unless indeed the bone and tendon grow 
together. For description of neurotomy see larger work. 

SIDE BONES. 

These consist in extensive ossification, from the heels 
of the coffin-bone into the lateral cartilages. Their great 
cause is improper shoeing ; cutting away of the bars or 
sole, so that the wall turns inward and bruises the sole ; 
pressure of the shoe on the sole whether from misfitting or 
from being left too long on ; uneven bearing of the shoe, 
throwing too much strain on one part ; pricking or pinching 
with nails driven too near the quick ; the pressure of the 
dry hard horn after undue paring or rasping, and the con- 
tinuous irritation which attends the partial separation of 
sole and wall. They are especially common in heavy 
horses with upright pasterns and the toe shortened rela- 



Diseases of the Foot. 467 

tively to the heels or shod with high heel calkins, so as 
to increase concussion in action. 

Symptoms. Lameness with a short stilty step, and a 
tendency to stumble from the attempt to avoid shock on 
the heels. The pasterns are upright and the heels often 
deep and strong. Pressure on the prominence above the 
hoof at the quarter, detects tenderness and a hard unyield- 
ing structure instead of the usual yielding elastic gristle. 
Bruises of the heel (corns) with bloody discoloration of 
the horn is almost a constant result of extensive side- 
bones, the sensitive sole being pinched between the bone 
and hoof. 

Fig 72. 




Fig. 72 — Ossified lateral cartilages. Side bones. 

Treatment. Subdue any existing inflammation by rest, 
blisters or even firing at the coronets, and apply a bar 
shoe, the bar resting on the bulbs of the frog, and keep 
the hoof-wall, at the heels, rasped lower than the rest of 
the bearing surface, so that daylight can be seen between 
this part and the shoe. The same shoeing must be kept 
up when the horse is put to work or he will soon fall lame 
again from bruising of the heels. 

Excision of the ossified cartilage and neurotomy have 
been resorted to with success, but are inapplicable to 
most cases. 

FRACTURES OF THE BONES OF THE FOOT 

The small sesamoid may be broken after it has been 
weakened by superficial and internal absorption. The 
pedal bone may give way from concussion when previously 
softened by disease, or in cases of blows on the surface, 



468 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

laceration and detachment of horn, or wounds with nails 
or other sharp bodies implicating the bone. The sudden 
and extreme lameness following an evident injury or a 
long-standing disease may arouse suspicions of this and 
if grating can be heard the case is certain. Treatment is 
rarely successful, excepting in circumscribed fractures 
from wounds, in which case the detached bone must be 
removed. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE FOOT. LAMINITIS. F0UNDEK. 

This consists in inflammation of the sensitive parts of 
the foot, but predominating in the anterior portion of the 
laminae, where the greatest strain comes in standing. 

Causes. The disease may arise from direct injury as in 
over-exertion on hard roads, blows, bruises or freezing of 
the feet, pricks or binding with nails, continued injury from 
a badly applied shoe, or the constant strain upon the feet 
during a long sea voyage. It may also occur from a sud- 
den chill, from drinking cold water when heated and 
fatigued, from overloading of the stomach with grain, 
from muco-enteritis, the result of an over-dose of purgative 
medicine, or from diseases of the lungs (pneumonia, bron- 
chitis). Small and deformed feet and large flat ones often 
suffer. Horses with heavy fat carcasses are also predis- 
posed. 

Symptoms. When not caused by direct injury to the 
foot, it is usually ushered in by fever and general stiffness 
and soreness of the surface, with or without shivering, 
but independent of any tenderness of the foot. If not 
relieved these are soon followed by tenderness of the 
foot, usually predominating at the anterior part, but some- 
times settling in the heel and causing pedal sesamoid- 
itis. When acute inflammation is developed in the lam- 
inae of the fore feet the horse is in a high fever, with 
full hard pulse, excited breathing, distended nostrils, ex- 
tension of the fore feet forward, so that they rest only on 
the heels, and bringing of the hind feet far forward be- 



Diseases of the Foot. 409 

neath the belly, to bear as much of the weight as possible. 
If moved, the horse groans, sways himself back on his 
hind parts, and drags the fore feet on their heels, or bal- 
ancing himself on the hind, lifts both fore feet at once 
and brings them down again on their heels. The affected 
feet are warm, even hot, and the animal refuses to have 
them lifted because of the pain consequent on standing 
on one. If they are struck with a hammer the animal 
winces and groans. The arteries on the pasterns throb 
violently. The hairs of the mane and tail may often be 
pulled from their follicles, showing the general implication 
of the skin. 

If one fore foot only is affected it is kept raised and 
advanced. If the hind feet, they are advanced beneath 
the belly, and the fore feet carried as far backward as 
possible to bear the greater part of the weight. 

Treatment. In the initial stage, with general stiffness 
but no special tenderness of the feet over other parts, 
vascular and nervous tension may be relieved and the 
disease suddenly cut short by full doses of sedatives (lo- 
belia, tobacco, aconite,) with warm clothing to encourage 
perspiration. Even at a more advanced stage when the 
feet are becoming congested and tender, the same may be 
resorted to, the feet being enveloped in warm poultices, 
and the animal encouraged to he down by supplying a 
clean comfortable bed of straw. Or in place of poulticing 
the feet, we may seek to improve the circulation by walk- 
ing without shoes on a soft newly plowed field, the heels 
having been slightly lowered, if very high, to allow press- 
ure on the sole, or the patient may even be walked on a 
hard surface after a long bar shoe with broad web and a 
slight rising at heel and toe (rocker fashion) has been ap- 
plied. But walking can never be resorted to when the 
extreme tenderness and fever show that active inflamma- 
tion has set in. In this case a mild laxative (aloes) must 
be given (unless already purging) and followed up by aco- 
nite or other sedatives, the feet must be enveloped in large 



470 The Farmer 's Veterinary Adviser. 

poultices and the animal encouraged to lie down. Should 
he refuse to lie down the hoof-wall should be rasped down 
to let the sole come in contact with the ground. In severe 
cases the coronet may be scarified with a sharp lancet and 
the foot placed in a bucket of warm water or fomented with 
the same to favor bleeding. In the course of two days, if the 
suffering, fever and local tenderness are increasing rather 
than abating, the sole may be thinned and opened at the 
toe, so as to evacuate any serous exudation and limit the 
separation of the horn from the quick, the poultices being 
kept on after as before. In the course of ten days or a 
fortnight the inflammation should have subsided far 
enough to warrant the application of a blister to the pas- 
tern and an ointment to the hoof, while the patient is 
turned out on a soft wet pasture or kept standing a part 
of his time on wet clay. 

CHRONIC LAMINITIS. CONVEX SOLES. PUMICE FEET. 

If the inflammation persists in a slight form, an excess- 
ive growth of soft, spongy horn takes place in front of the 
laminae at the toe, separating the coffin-bone from the 
hoof-wall and allowing its anterior border to press upon 
the sole or even to perforate it. The hoof-wall becomes 
covered with rings usually running together at the toe, 
where it bulges out below and falls in above. Complete 
restoration cannot be expected in the worst cases of this 
kind, but much may be done for the majority. Put on a 
thick broad webbed bar shoe beveled toward the inner 
side on its upper surface and thinner at the heel than the 
toe, dress the sole and wall daily with hot tar, apply gen- 
tle blisters around the coronet, and keep in a very soft 
damp pasture. The new growth of horn may grow down 
almost perfect in appearance, but it retains an undesira- 
ble brittleness. 

CRACKS IN THE HOOF-WALL. SAND-CRACK. QUARTER-CRACK. 

The predisposition to this is usually to be found in 
rasping and drying of the hoof-wall, in uneven bearing of 



Diseases of the Foot. 471 

the shoe, in alternate soaking of the hoof in water and 
drying, and in treads or other temporary wounds or inju- 
ries to the coronet. m The crack extends from the coronet 
downward, for a variable distance, in the direction of the 
horny fibres. If attended by lameness, the laminae are 
usually being pinched between the edges of the crack, the 
irritation is perhaps further increased by the presence of 
sand and dirt, and fungous growths may appear in the 
sore. 

Treatment. A carefully applied bar shoe having an 
even bearing all round the foot ; a nail driven through the 
edges of the crack and riveted so as to hold them together ; 
a transverse groove, f to 1 inch in length, cut to the quick 
just above the upper end of the crack, and active stimu- 
lation or slight blistering of the coronet above this point 
will usually succeed in obtaining an unbroken growth 
from above, and when the crack has grown off at the lower 
border the hoof is perfect. But the inflammation will 
sometimes demand poulticing ; the nail may have to be 
replaced by a metallic plate fixed to the hoof on each side 
of the crack by screws not exceeding a line in length ; a 
gaping crack may require filling with gutta-percha or 
other hard substance to keep the edges immovable ; or 
finally, it may be requisite in bad cases to cut out a V- 
shaped piece of horn, the apex corresponding to the mid- 
dle of the crack and the two limbs to the coronet on the 
two sides of the crack. 

FALSE QUARTER. 

This is similar to a sand-crack in appearance but caused 
by such destruction of the secreting structure at the top 
of the hoof that it is impossible to obtain a growth of 
horn to fill up the interval. Palliation by careful shoeing 
is all that can be accomplished. 

HORNY TUMOR OE THE LAMINA. 

This is a result of sand-crack, the irritation leading to 
an increased secretion of horn on the inner surface of the 



472 The Farmer's Veterinary Adiiser. 

hoof-wall, which in its turn may press on the quick and 
cause lameness. With or without any remains of sand- 
crack there is tenderness on pinching that part of the 
hoof, and when the shoe is removed and the hoof pared, 
there is observed a semicircular encroachment on the sole 
by a white spongy horn extending in from the hoof-wall. 
Wet swabs on the foot and rest may subdue any inflam- 
mation, but should lameness persist, the only resort is to 
cut out a triangular portion of the wall including the tu- 
mor, poultice the part, then cover with tar and wait for 
the horn to grow down in a healthy condition. 

CORNS. 

These are at first simple bruises of that part of the sole 
included between the bars and the wall at the heel, but 
later there is often an increased production of horn and 
the formation of a horny tumor which presses injuriously 
on the quick. In other cases the bruise causes active 
inflammation and the formation of matter, which if denied 
escape below, will burrow toward the coronet or less fre- 
quently around the toe and give rise to disease in the 
deeper fibrous network, the cartilage or the bone. In 
these last conditions it usually results in a fistula (quittor). 
In other cases the corn is pared out as is supposed, but 
the heels, having lost the mechanical sur. port of the sole, 
curl forward and inward, repeat the bruise continually, 
keep up the inflammation and suppuration and what is 
equivalent to au open sore in the heel. The irritation 
often produces absorption of the margin of the bone at 
the heels with bony deposits above or below, and ossifica- 
tion of the lateral cartilage, a condition which almost 
necessarily perpetuates the bruises or corns (see side bones). 
Corns may exist in either heel but are usually in the inner 
or weaker one, and prevail above all in flat feet with low 
weak heels. 

Symptoms. Lameness with a tendency to point, with the 
heel slightly raised when at rest, and a short, stilty, stum- 



Diseases of the Foot 473 

bling step when moved. Pinching the affected heel with 
pincers or tapping it with a hammer causes wincing. If 
the shoe is removed and the heel pared out, the horn may 
be seen to be blood-stained, but unless this is seen on 
removing the flakes, no one should allow curiosity to lead 
to a deeper search. If suppuration has taken place the 
tenderness is extreme, often causing the animal to keep 
the foot raised and scarcely daring to touch the ground 
with the toe, a tender swelling usually appears at the 
coronet above the affected heel, and pinching or ham- 
mering of the heel is unendurable. A horny tumor may 
be recognized by symptoms similar to those shown in 
Iceraphyllocele. 

Treatment. If a recent bruise and uncomplicated, apply 
either a bar shoe or a common one, but rasp down the 
bearing surface of the affected heel to avoid pressure as 
advised for side bones, and place the feet in water or keep 
the wall moist with wet swabs, and the sole with oil meal 
or clay packing. When tenderness has subsided, smear 
the hoof with ointment and work carefully. Remove the 
shoe early enough to prevent pressure on that heel, and in 
preparing the foot retain the strength of the heel by pre- 
serving the elastic horn of the sole between wall and bar. 
Never allow this to be pared and weakened unless it be to 
evacuate matter or sand, or for the removal of a horny 
tumor. 

If suppuration has taken place, pare down the heel 
until the matter escapes, remove all horn detached from 
the quick, and pare the horn around this to a thin edge, 
poultice until the surface is smooth, dry and not at all 
tender, then apply a bar shoe, a leather sole, and a 
stuffing of tow and tar or crude turpentine (pine pitch). 
No pressure should be allowed on this heel until the sole 
has grown up to its natural level, as a support. Horny 
tumors may be removed by paring out and treating as 
above advised, until the sole attains its natural growth, 
If old-standing corns are connected with death of a por 



474 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

tion of the heel, of the foot bone or ulceration of the 
lateral cartilage, these must be scraped or cut off before 
improvement is to be expected. If connected with side 
bones, they are liable to be kept up by frequent pinching 
of the quick between the bone and horn, and demand 
careful shoeing to avoid pressure on the heel. Some 
cases may be benefited by cutting out the side bone. 

BEUISES OF THE SOLE. 

Whether resulting from badly applied shoes, stones, 
accumulated gravel or dried mud, these are to be recog- 
nized, like corns, by pinching the hoof or tapping it with 
a hammer, and are to be treated on precisely the same 
principles, relieving the pressure when necessary, soothing 
the parts, opening when matter has formed, followed up by 
poulticing and bar shoe with leather sole and tar stuffing. 

Graveling is closely allied to the above, dirt having 
worked up through the unnatural groove between the wall 
and sole, and set up suppuration. Except in the careful 
removal of the foreign elements, treatment does not dif- 
fer from that of suppurating bruise or corn. 

CHICKS AND BINDING WITH NAILS. 

These usually occur in thin weak feet or such as have 
been reduced by over-cutting and rasping till there is 
little to hold the nails ; in the case of nail stubs being left 
in the hoof from a former shoeing so as to turn the new 
nails in a wrong direction, and when the blacksmith is too 
stupid to recognize the difference between the stroke of 
driving a nail into the soft spongy horn and the hard firm 
outer horn of the wall. Simple binding with the nails 
may cause intermittent or persistent lameness, and there 
is flinching on striking the heads of the nails or the wall 
with a hammer, or in compressing the margin of the hoof 
with pincers. If matter forms there are all the local ten- 
derness and inability to use the foot spoken of in suppu- 
rating corn. In simple pricks an examination of the nail 



Diseases of the Foot. 47o 

clinch.es usually reveals one higher than the rest, and if 
this is a posterior one it is all the more suspicious. A 
nail may be driven too near the quick and yet not cause 
lameness for a week or two, until some slight shifting in 
the position of the shoe causes it to press painfully. 

Treatment. La slight cases the withdrawal of the naiJ 
may be all that is necessary. In more severe it may be 
requisite to punch the nail holes nearer to the toe, to 
drive the nails low, to apply cold water or other soothing 
agent to the foot and to rest for a day or two. If matter 
has formed the course of the offending nail must be fol- 
lowed with the drawing-knife, the pus evacuated and the 
parts treated afterward as in suppurating corn. If the 
bone has been reached and a dead scale exists on tho 
surface this must be cut down upon and removed. 

INCISED AND PUNCTURED WOUNDS OF THE SOLE. 

That part of the foot which is uncovered by the shoe is 
liable to penetrating wounds from nails, glass and other 
sharp bodies on the ground, as well as nails, pitchforks, 
broken planks, etc., against which they may kick. Such 
wounds are dangerous according to their depth and posi- 
tion. If from a clean nail, and no deeper than just to 
penetrate the quick, they are usually of little consequence, 
and a little tar or gutta-percha may be used to fill the 
wound, if any, until it is seen whether inflammation will 
ensue. If deeper, a vertical wound will be most seriou. 1 - 
in the middle third of the sole, because of the implication 
of the flexor tendon and small sesamoid bone, and the 
risk of pedal sesamoiditis, or even an open coffin-joint result- 
ing. If in the anterior third, the danger lies mainly in 
injury to the lower surface of the coffin-bone, with death 
and removal of a thin scale which must be thrown off 
before the wound can close. If in the posterior third the 
elastic frog alone is wounded and will heal very readily. 

Treatment will vary accordingly. The simple removal 
of the foreign body may suffice. Cold applications may be 



476 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

needed, matter may require an opening to escape, or the 
bone may have to be scraped to expose a living sur- 
face. But in wounds of the tendon or joint the foot must 
be wrapped in cloths, the heels raised if standing, and a 
constant stream of cold water kept up on the part, by 
having a caoutchouc tube attached to the limb and foot 
and acting like a syphon to bring the water from a bucket 
at a higher level. This may require to be kept up day 
and night for several days. The subsequent treatment is 
like that for pedal sesamoiditis. 

DISTORTIONS OF THE COFFIN-BONE. 

Under this head may be named a great variety of de- 
formities, the result of disease. Thus in long continued 
inflammation of the laminae the fibrous net-work in front 
of the coffin-bone is partly ossified, giving this part a con- 
vex aspect from above downward. Continued irritation 
of the sole will equally develop a bony enlargement which 
is associated with a circumscribed convexity and tender- 
ness of the sole. The pressure of a horny tumor, whether 
on the laminae, the quarter or elsewhere, corresponding to 
and pressing on the bone, will cause absorption and de- 
pression of the bone to an equal extent. The pressure 
on the anterior border of the cofiiin-bone, when separated 
from the hoof-wall and resting upon the sole, leads to 
extensive absorption and rounding of this part with a 
bony deposit above, on its front. Persistent irritation 
along the lateral borders of the foot from binding with 
nails, or the separation of the wall and sole, with or with- 
out the presence of gritty matters in the groove, causes 
absorption and rounding of the sharp lateral margins of 
the coffin-bone. But the heels of the coffin-bone are the 
parts which above all suffer in this way. Bruises from 
setting in of the shoe, from gritty matter or hard clay, 
especially if a furrow has been formed between wall and 
sole, from curving forward and inward of the heels when 
the supporting sole has been pared out in search of corns 



Diseases of the Foot. 477 

or to prevent their formation ; pressure from curving in of 
the wall which has been allowed to grow too long without 
support from the sole, or has been rasped till it dries or 
withers ; uneven bearing of the shoe ; all undue paring of 
heels and quarters contribute to produce absorption and 
rounding of the naturally sharp border of the coffin-bone 
at its heels, bony deposits above and below, induration, 
softening, ulceration or death of more or less of the bony 
tissue, and permanent unsoundness. 

The existence of such distortions must be ascertained 
from the unnatural appearance of the hoof ; the signs of 
a horny tumor ; a rugged unhealthy hoof-wall ; a flat or 
convex appearance of the sole in whole or in part , a 
deep furrow between sole and wall ; wasting and diminu- 
tion of the foot as a whole, but especially of the heels and 
quarters ; and it may be side bone or fistula. There is 
more or less tenderness of the feet and stilty careful gait, 
or there may be extreme lameness. It will be observed 
that these distortions are usually connected with some 
other disease of the feet, and the symptoms will vary 
according to the nature of the accompanying lesion. 

Such changes of bony structure are permanent as a rule, 
so that our attention must be given, first to the removal 
of any unnatural condition which has caused and is per- 
' petuating them, and then to secure such a system of shoe- 
ing as will allow of the utilization of the animal in spite 
of the acquired deformities. The hoof must be encouraged, 
by ointments, stimulants to the coronets, and perhaps a 
cool moist pasture, to grow as nearly as possible to the 
natural condition. Then the shoe must be applied so as 
to secure the greatest extent of bearing surface, without 
injury to the deformed and weak points. In many cases 
a bar shoe is wanted to avail of the frog for bearing weight ; 
a leather sole may be necessary in others ; a broad web tc 
the shoe, on one or on both sides, may be essential for 
protection ; in othei cases the upper surface must be bev- 
eled ; in still others the nail-holes must be stamped onlj 



478 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

around the toes; clips, small nails, artificial repairs of 
breaches in the hoof-wall may be resorted to, but it is 
beyond the scope of this work to do more than hint at 
what can only be accomplished by a combination ol 
anatomical knowledge, mechanical skill and manual dex- 
terity. 

CONTEACTION. 

This is a great bugbear of horsemen, since it exists in 
nearly all the affections of the foot. It is usually a result 
and symptom of disease, attending as we have seen on 
many different maladies, in which the hoof shrinks from 
the heat, dryness and disuse. It may also occur from 
simple idleness in a stall ; from overgrowth of the hoof- 
wall, which curls in for want of support from the sole and 
moisture from the laminae ; from hardening and shrinking 
of the heels as the result of rasping, or of alternate soak- 
ings and drying; from undue paring of the heels, bars 
and frog, thus removing the natural supports ; and from 
the effects of the shoe and nails in preventing the normal 
expansion in growth, and in removing the frog and sole 
from use and pressure. Thus produced it is not a direct 
cause of lameness and feet can be shown in which the two 
heels overlap each other without such a result. Yet such 
contraction implies wasting or absorption of the internal 
sensitive structures, diminution of the basis of support, 
with a corresponding weakness and tendency to disease 
under slighter determining causes than in the healthy 
state. The simplest treatment is to remove the shoes 
round the edges of the hoof-wall to prevent splitting, and 
keep standing sixteen hours a day, for two or three weeks, 
in a puddle of wet clay, then use hoof ointments freely, 
and apply a shoe with equal bearing throughout and with- 
out any bevel on its upper surface. 

TEEADS ON THE CORONET. 

These are especially common in winter when the shoes 
are sharpened for frost. They aie dangerous because of 



Diseases of the Foot. 479 

the frequent implication of trie horn-secreting structures, 
so as to cause false quarter, and from the tendency of 
matter to burrow beneath the horn and in the supporting 
fibrous net-work to form a fistula. They should be 
thoroughly cleansed from all sand and mud, the inflamma- 
tion subdued by soothing applications (wet bandages or 
weak astringent lotions) and care taken to prevent the 
further introduction of dirt. To this end a simple cover- 
ing of tar will sometimes suffice, but in other cases a care- 
fully applied bandage is essential. Muddy roads should 
be avoided until healing is complete. 

FISTULA OF THE COKONET. QUITTOE. 

Causes. Treads and other wounds of the coronet ; sup- 
purating corns, bruises, pricks and wounds of the sole ; 
suppuration from the working in of sand or gravel between 
the sole and wall ; irritation from sand-cracks and false 
quarters, and disease of the coffin-bone or its cartilage. 

Symptoms. Following on some one of the above dis- 
orders there is a tender swelling at the coronet, which 
bursts, discharging a more or less whitish serous fluid and 
shows no tendency to dry up nor close. If probed it is 
found to lead into one or more small canals in the fibrous 
net-work which covers the bone and elastic structures of 
the foot, and it may be to diseased or dead portions of 
bone or gristle. 

Treatment. If the inflammation is very violent the foot 
should be enveloped in a large poultice and a laxative ad- 
ministered. "When moderated, inject a slightly caustic 
solution in the direction of each canal and as far as possi- 
ble. (Bichloride of mercury 5 grains, spirits of wine 1 oz., 
muriatic acid 20 drops). Less depends on the composi- 
tion of the mixture than on the application. Inject it 
three times the first day, twice the second and once a day 
thereafter. "When the discharge has ceased and the wound 
is almost superficial, stop the injection and apply a simple 
dressing of wet tow. In aggravated cases with disease of 



480 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

the lateral cartilage or bone, these may require to be cut 
out or scraped, but our limits will not permit a furthei 
notice of this. 

POWDERY DEGENERATION OF THE DEEP PARTS OF THE WALL. 
SEEDY TOE. 

The result of uneven bearing of the shoe, the formation 
of furrows between the sole and wall, direct violence, as 
blows, or the too tight hammering of clips, etc., this is 
manifested by an irregularity or dryness of the affected 
part of the wall, and the formation of a cavity, filled with 
horn powder between the laminae and the wall of the hoof. 
Clear out the cavity until the tough healthy horn i3 
reached, then fill with warm tar and shoe carefully to give 
a uniform bearing. A clip may be useful as a support to 
the undermined horn but it is destructive to hammer it 
tight. The dressing must be repeated at each shoeing 
until the cavity is filled up. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE SECRETLNG MEMBRANE OF THE FROG 
WITH DISCHARGE. THRUSH. 

Causes. Exposure to wet and filth ; standing on dung, 
or in a dirty, wet yard ; stuffing the feet with cow- dung ; 
bruises of the frog ; undue paring ; wounds of the frog ; 
accumulation of dried mud or gravel in the cleft ; exten- 
sion of disease from the skin of the heel, etc. 

Symptoms. Foetid discharge from the cleft, soreness oi 
the skin behind this, lameness or not according to severity. 

Treatment. Wash out the diseased part, pare away all 
ragged detached horn, and apply some astringents (dry 
calomel pressed in on a pledget of tow ; tar with a few 
drops of sulphuric acid on the surface ; carbolic acid ; oi 
finely powdered sulphate of copper or zinc). 

CANKER. 

This is a more inveterate inflammation of the frog, and 
it may be the sole, representing in the horn-secreting 



Diseases of the Foot. 4S1 

structures that aggravated affection of the skin of the 
heel in which red fungous growths appear. It may be 
preceded by thrush and is due to the same general causes, 
though it is also attributed to a parasitic fungus. It is 
especially common in coarse lymphatic subjects. 

Symptoms. A rapid growth, from the frog or sole or 
both, of a soft, unhealthy, spongy horn, the tubes of which 
are unnaturally large, open and wanting in cohesion, so 
that they often stand apart from each other, and have the 
appearance rather of a fleshy material than of horn. If 
cut down it may grow up to the same level in twenty-four 
hours, and the enlarged villi are reached and bleed long 
before this would have happened in healthy horn. As in 
thrush there is a most offensive discharge, and the disease 
is very obstinate to treat. 

Treatment. Cut down the fungous horn till blood 
comes, and the adjacent horn to the same level. Then 
cover with tow soaked in tincture of muriate of iron and 
apply firm pressure by slips of wood placed side by side 
with one end of each resting above the web of the shoe 
at the toe, and the other on a slip extending across the 
bulbs of the frog and resting above the heels of the shoe. 
This must be removed and the dressing renewed at least 
once in twenty-four hours. Should the course of improve- 
ment seem lagging, change the dressing for carbolic acid, 
chromic acid, the mineral acids, sulphate of copper or 
iron, chloride of zinc, quicklime, chloride of antimony or 
other caustic, resort being had to a new one in every 
instance as the former seems to lose its effect. The re- 
moval of the entire sole is essential to recovery in some 
cases. 

SIMPLE FOOT-EOT EST CATTLE AND SHEEP. 

This is a simple inflammation of the horn-secreting 

structures and adjacent skin, the result of direct irritation: 

Wearing of the sole to the quick from long journeys on 

hard roads ; curling in of overgrown walls on the sole on 

31 



482 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

soft, boggy pastures ; wounds with sharp bodies like nails, 
glass, etc.; the accumulation and drying of clay or mud 
between the claws; softening of the horn and irritation 
from standing on hot reeking manure ; irritation of the 
skin around the coronets by iced water, etc. 

Symptoms will vary according to the form, but in all 
there is lameness, often severe, the sheep getting down on 
its knees to feed, and an examination of the foot shows 
the nature of the injury. In the case of wounds with 
nails, glass, etc., the heat of the hoof will show the injured 
one, and a slight paring will detect the wound if not the 
offending body. 

Treatment. In case of a simple superficial rawness 
between the claws, clean the part and touch with a feather 
dipped in a mixture of one part of sulphuric acid and 
three or four parts of water; or the surface may be 
smeared with tar and a bandage tied between the claws 
and around the pastern. In case of the formation of 
matter beneath the horn the foreign body, if any, should 
be removed, the detached horn pared away until we reach 
that which is still connected with the quick, the surround- 
ing horn should be pared down to a thin edge and the 
sore covered with tar, with a few drops of sulphuric acid 
on the surface, the whole being closely bound up in a 
bandage. In exceptional cases the severity of the inflam- 
mation may demand a poultice, over the surface of which 
a weak solution of sugar of lead may be poured. One tar 
dressing is often enough, but the foot should always be 
examined a few days after, and any hindrance to the heal- 
ing process removed. Bad cases with fungous growths 
must be treated like similar cases in the horse. 

Sheep kept in low, soft pastures should have the hoof 
shortened by a knife or toe nippers at short intervals, to 
prevent injury to the sole. 

CONTAGIOUS FOOT-ROT 

Presents symptoms resembling those of simple foot-rot, 
but usually begins at the coronet unless in the case of 



Diseases of the Foot. 483 

pre-existing sores, and tends to produce fungous growths 
of the skin around the margin of the hoof and a degenera- 
tion of horn in some respects comparable to canker. It is 
mainly to be recognized by its spread in a flock as a 
sequence of contact with diseased animals, and without 
any sufficient cause in their management or in the damp- 
ness of the locality. 

Treatment does not differ materially from that of simple 
foot-rot except that a preference must be given to antisep- 
tics in the selection of caustic dressings. Hydrochloric 
acid reduced with thrice its bulk of water; chloride of 
zinc 1 dr., water 1 pint ; carbolic acid ; butter of antimony, 
may be cited as examples. Much more important, how- 
ever, is it to separate the sound from the diseased, and 
from contaminated pastures and buildings, and to thor- 
oughly cleanse and disinfect the latter before they are 
again used for the shelter of flocks (see Disinfection). 

FOOT-ROT FROM TUBERCULOSIS. 

This is common in cattle and sheep, the disease com- 
mencing in the digital bones, which are enlarged with 
interstitial and surrounding deposit, leading to open sores, 
open joints and complete destruction of the member (see 
Tuberculosis). 



CHAPTER XXI. 
DISEASED GKOWTHS 

The limits of the present work forbid any systematic de- 
scription of the various degenerations of tissue (fatty, min- 
eral, amyloid, pigmentary, etc.,) and of the tumors or dis- 
eased growths which appear in different parts of the 
system. The last will only be noticed so far as to point 
out the principal distinctive characters of the malignant 
tumors or cancers, and the simple. 

Simple Tumors are composed of elements like those 
previously existing at the same or some other part of the 
body ; they do not tend to draw surrounding structures 
into their substance, but grow between these and push 
them aside ; usually they are surrounded by distinct sacs 
which separate them completely from surrounding tissues 
except where the blood-vessels enter ; they do not tend to 
produce swellings in the nearest lymphatic glands, by rea- 
son of propagation of elements absorbed from the dis- 
eased mass, nor an unhealthy constitutional state — dys- 
crasia — tending to the formation of such diseased masses 
in internal organs ; and their elements tend to be resolved 
mainly into fat or gelatine by boiling, which shows there 
is little albumen in their structure. 

Cancers, on the other hand, usually contain elements 
unlike any previously existing in the system. The pres- 
ence of large cells, each containing smaller ones (nuclei) 
in its interior, and these still smaller nuclei (nucleoli), was 
at one time thought characteristic of cancer, and though 
this cannot now he maintained, yet the abundance of such 



Diseased Growths. 485 



cells, or of any cells, implying the growth of the tumor is 
always highly suspicious. These tumors have no clearly- 
defined limit, nor limiting sac, but grow in the natural 
structures, drawing them into their substance and trans- 
forming them into a cancerous mass. Hence, a cancel 
near the surface will often lead to a depression at first by 
the drawing in of the skin, and in the mammary glands 
the drawing in of the teat is a most characteristic early 
symptom. They are hereditary, tending to appear in the 
offspring at the same age as in the parent. They lead to 
early and painful swelling of the adjacent lymphatic 
glands, of the internal lymphatic glands and of the spleen, 
and produce or aggravate the unhealthy constitutional 
state on which the deposition of cancer depends. If re- 
moved, there is a great liability to the formation of cancer 
in the same situation or some other, and especially if we 
fail to remove the whole organ in which the disease pri- 
marily appeared. They are more vascular, and grow 
faster without apparent cause (mechanical injury, expos- 
ure,) than simple tumors. Finally they contain an ex- 
cess of albumen, and the larger the proportion of albumen, 
of cells and granules, the more rapid is the growth and 
the more redoubtable the result. 

The Hard Cancers (Scirrhus) are firm and crisp under 
the knife, and from the cut surface exudes a whitish fluid 
— cancer-juice — containing the characteristic cells and 
granules. Soft or Brain-like Cancer is very soft and fria- 
ble, bleeds freely when wounded, contains a great excess 
of cells and granules, and from its rapid growth pushes 
existing tissues aside so as to feel more circumscribed. 
It is the cancer of the young and of particular organs, 
such as the eye, grows rapidly, opens early, exposing a 
raw, unhealthy, bleeding surface, and has a short and fa- 
tal course. It is often complicated by an extensive pro- 
duction of black pigment (melanotic cancer). In Epithe- 
lial Cancer the morbid product consists mainly in epithe- 
lial cells, and it grows downward into the substance of the 



486 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

tissues as well as outward from the skin. It is slow to 
implicate adjacent lymphatic glands, or to produce a con- 
stitutional dyscrasia with internal deposits, and hence its 
removal is much more frequently successful. Colloid Can- 
cer is characterized by the formation of a mucous or gelat- 
inous liquid containing a kernel of granules and rounded 
simple or nucleated cells, enclosed in spherical cavities, 
surrounded by a delicate membranous stroma, made up 
of the former tissues of the part. Osteoid Cancer of ivory- 
like hardness, with a vascular surface and interspaces, has 
not been observed in the lower animals. 

Treatment of Tumors. Recent simple tumors, still 
largely cellular, may sometimes be removed by stimulat- 
ing embrocations, as iodine ointment or tincture, cam- 
phorated spirit, soap liniment, etc. Others may be greatly 
reduced or even entirely removed by the occasional injec- 
tion into their substance, through a very fine needle-like 
tube, of discutients (weak solutions of iodine). In cystic 
tumors the evacuation of the liquid through a fine cannula 
or needle-like tube, and the injection of a weak solution 
of iodine (one part of the compound tincture and three 
parts water) will often succeed. But most frequently, 
and especially in old-standing tumors, resort must be had 
to the knife or to caustics. Excision with the knife is the 
quickest and usually the preferable mode, but in some 
dangerous situations caustic may be preferred. Its em- 
ployment is founded on the fact that it tends to eat away 
the diseased mass sooner than the healthy ; but this par- 
tial immunity of the sound tissues will not warrant the use 
of such agents as caustic potassa or soda, which quickly 
permeate all cell structures alike and destroy them. Ni- 
trate of silver, chloride of zinc, sulphate of copper, ter- 
chloride of antimony, or the mineral acids, are usually 
preferable. Protection against cold, ill-health arising 
from other sources, mechanical injuries and exposures to 
cold or wet are important elements in treatment. 

For cancers, an early and extensive removal with the 



Diseased Growths. 487 

knife may be said to hold out the only hope. The whole 
organ in which the cancer grows should be cut out, as a 
rule, to insure the removal of all diseased elements, and 
any interference is to be deprecated when the adjacent 
lymphatic glands are already enlarged. 

Attempts have been made to dissolve and remove can- 
cers and other tumors with pepsin, and with considerable 
success, the agent virtually digesting the diseased prod- 
ucts with little pain, while the healthy tissues remain un- 
affected. 



APPENDIX. 
ACTION, DOSES, ETC., OF MEDICINES. 

To some readers a few words of explanation may be 
necessary in order to the proper understanding of the drugs 
and their doses. 

1. EXPLANATION OP TERMS. 

Alteratives change in some unexplained way the condi- 
tions and functions of organs. 

Ancestketics deprive of sensation and suffering. 

Anodynes allay or diminish pain. 

Antacids are antidotes to acids. 

Anthelmintics kill or expel worms. 

Antiperiodics obviate the return of a paroxysm in peri- 
odic diseases. 

Antiseptics prevent, arrest or retard putrefaction. 

Antispasmodics prevent or allay cramps. 

Aperients gently open the bowels. 

Aromatics, strong-smelling stimulants which dispel wind 
and allay pain. 

Astringents cause contraction of vital structures. 

Carminatives, warming stimulants (Aromatics). 

Cathartics freely open the bowels. 

Cholagogues increase the secretion of bile. 

Demulcents sheathe and protect irritated surfaces. 

Diaphoretics cause perspiration. 

Discutients dispel enlargements. 

Disinfectants destroy infecting matter. 

Diuretics increase the secretion of urine. 



Appendix. 



489 



Echolics cause contraction of the womb. 

Emetics induce vomiting. 

Expectorants increase the secretion from the air tubes 

Febrifuges counteract fever — lower temperature. 

Laxatives (Aperients). 

Narcotics allay pain and produce sleep. 

Parturients (Ecbolics). 

Purgatives (Cathartics). 

Refrigerants diminish heat. 

Sedatives depress nervous power or lower circulation. 

Soporifics induce sleep. 

Stimulants temporarily excite the nervous or circulatory 
system. 

Sudorifics (Diaphoretics). 

Sialogogues increase the secretion of saliva. 

Stomachics improve digestion. 

Tonics gradually and permanently improve digestion 
and nutrition. 

Vermifuges kill and expel worms. 

2. GRADUATION OF DOSES. 

The doses given may be held applicable to full-grown 
animals of medium size, therefore some allowance must be 
made in any case in which the patient exceeds or comes 
short of the average of his kind. A similar modification 
must be made as regards young animals, not only on ac- 
count of their smaller size but also of their greater sus- 
ceptibility. The following table may serve as a guide : 



HORSE, ETC. 


ox. 


SHEEP. 


SWINE. 


DOGS. 




3 years. 

iX-3 " 
9-18 m'ths. 

5-9 " 
i-5 " 


2 years. 
1-2 " 

6-12 m'ths. 
3-6 «« 
i-3 " 


1)4 years. 
9-18 m'ths. 
5-9 " 
3-5 " 
1-3 " 


15 m'ths. 
8-15 " 
6-8 ■* 
3-6 « 
1-3 " 


X year. 
3-6 m'ths. 

iX-3 " 
20-45 days. 
10-20 " 


I part. 
7b, — 

>A- 
1 

Tff 



Allowance must also be made for a nervous tempera- 
ment which usually renders an animal more impressible 



490 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

for habit or continued use which tends to decrease the 
susceptibility for individual drugs, for idiosyncrasy which 
can only be discovered by observing the action of the 
agent on the particular subject, and for the influence of 
disease when that is likely to affect the action. Thus in 
most diseases of the brain and spinal cord and in some 
impactions of the stomach, double the usual quantities of 
purgative medicine will be necessary, while in influenza 
and other low fevers half the usual doses may prove fatal. 
In acute congestion of the brain, stimulating narcotics 
(opium, belladonna, hyoscyamus,) would aggravate the 
symptoms, etc. 

3. FREQUENCY OP ADMINISTRATION. 

Anodynes, Antispasmodics, Narcotics, Sedatives and 
Stimulants may generally be repeated once in four or six 
hours in order to maintain their effect. Alteratives, Dia- 
phoretics, Febrifuges, Eefrigerants and Tonics may be 
administered twice daily. Purgatives should only be 
given when necessary and should never be repeated until 
from the lapse of time we are assured that the first dose is 
to remain inoperative. Thus unless in urgent need, a 
horse should not take a second dose of physic under 
thirty-six hours after the exhibition of the first, and in all 
cases, until the medicine has worked off, he should be 
kept at rest and allowed only warm bran mashes and 
water with the chill taken off. In ruminants a second dose 
may be ventured on in twelve or sixteen hours, and in 
carnivora and onmivora in from seven to ten hours. 
Emetics should be given in full doses and repeated in five 
or ten minutes if they fail to take effect, their action being 
further solicited by copious draughts of tepid water and 
tickling of the back of the mouth with a feather. 

4. FORM TO ADMINISTER. 

Drugs may often be given as powder or solution in the 
food or water ; they may be made into a soft solid with 



Appendix. 491 

syrup and linseed meal, rolled into a short cylinder and 
covered with soft paper ; they may be converted into an 
infusion with warm or cold water, or into a decoction by 
boiling ; or they may be powdered and suspended in thick 
gruel or mucilage. They may be given, in a liquid form, 
from a horn or bottle ; or, as a short cylinder or pill, may 
be lodged over the middle of the root of the tongue ; or, 
as a sticky mass, they may be smeared on the back teeth ; 
or they may be given as an injection into the rectum ; or 
finally, in the case of certain powerful and non-irritating 
agents, they may be injected under the skin. 

No agent should be given until sufficiently diluted to 
prevent irritation, if retained a few minutes in the mouth, 
and irritants that will not mix with water (oil of turpen- 
tine, croton oil, etc.,) should be given in a bland oil, in 
milk or in eggs after having been thoroughly mixed. 



492 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



DKUGS AND DOSES. 

When not otherwise stated, the doses- for the horse may be given to ox, ast 
and mule, and those of the sheep to the goat and swine. 

Acetic acid, antidote to acids, cooling astringent: Horse I dr; ox 2 
drs ; ass I dr ; sheep I scr ; dog 2-3 drops. 

Tincture of aconite, sedative, diaphoretic: Horse 20-30 drops; 0% 
30-40 drops; ass 15-20 drops; sheep 3-5 drops; dog 1-3 drops. 

Alcohol, stimulant, diuretic, narcotic: Horse 1-3 oz ; ox 3-6 oz; ass I 
oz ; sheep % oz ; dog 2 drs. Locally cooling astringent. 

Brandy, whisky and gin, stimulant; diuretic, narcotic . Horse 3-6 oz ; 
ox 6-12 oz; ass 2-5 oz; sheep 10 oz; dog % oz. Locally cooling astringent. 

Strong ale, stimulant, diuretic, narcotic: Horse 1-2 pts; ox 2-4 ptsj 
ass I pt ; sheep ^ pt ; dog 2 oz. Locally cooling astringent. 

Barbadoes aloes, purgative : Horse 4 drs ; ass 3-4 drs ; dog %, dr. 

Cape aloes, purgative : Horse 5 drs ; ass 4-5 drs. 

Alum, astringent: Horse 2-3 drs; ox 3-4 drs; ass 2 drs; sheep ^-l dr; 
dog l / 2 -\ scr. 

Ammonia, liquid, diffusible stimulant, antispasmodic, antacid, diuretic: 
Horse l / z oz; ox l / z -\ oz ; ass 2-4 drs; sheep %-\ dr; dog 10 drops. Lo- 
cally blister. 

Aromatic ammonia, diffusible stimulant, antispasmodic, antacid, diuretic : 
Horse 1-2 oz ; ox 2-4 oz ; ass 1-2 oz ; sheep %-i oz ; dog 1 dr. Locally 
blister. 

Carbonate of ammonia, diffusible stimulant, antispasmodic, antacid, di- 
uretic: Horse 2-4 drs; ox 4-6 drs; ass 2 drs; sheep l / z -\ dr; dog 10-15 
grs. Locally blister. 

Muriate of ammonia, stimulant, discutient, alterative, diuretic : Horse 
2-4 drs; ox 4-6 drs; ass 2 drs ; sheep ^-1 dr; dog 20 grs. Locally cool- 
ing discutient. 

Acetate of ammonia, solution, diaphoretic, diuretic, stimulant : Horse 
2-3 oz; ox 3-4 oz ; ass 2 oz; sheep %-! oz; dog 2 drs. 

Anise-seed, stomachic, carminative: Horse I oz ; ox 1-2 oz; ass I oz, 
sheep 2-4 drs ; dog 1-3 scr. 

Antimony, tartarized (tartar emetic), emetic : Swine 5 grs : dog 
2-4 grs. Sedative, diaphoretic : Horse 2 drs ; ox 2-4 drs ; ass 2 drs ; sheep 
1-2 scr; swine y z -\ gr; dog %-%, gr. Locally blister. 

Areca nut, vermifuge, tseniafuge : Horse I oz ; ox I oz ; ass I oz ; 
sheep 3 drs ; dog %-\ dr. 

Arnica tincture, stimulant, diuretic: Horse 1 dr; ox I dr; ass % dr; 
sheep 1 scr; dog 10 drops. Locally cooling, soothing. 

Arsenic, alterative, nerve tonic: Horse 5 grs; ox 5-8 grs; ass 3-5 grs; 
sheep 1 gr ; swine ^ gr ; dog \ gr. Locally caustic, parasiticide. 

Asafoztida, diffusible stimulant, carminative, vermifuge : Horse 2 drs ; 
ox 4 drs; ass 1-2 drs; sheep y^-\ dr; swine ^ dr; dog 10-20 grs. 

Azedarach, vermifuge: Horse %-l oz; ox I oz; ass 3-4 drs; sheep 1-3 
drs ; swine I dr ; dog 20 grs. 



Appendix. 493 

Belladonna, anodyne, antispasmodic, narcotic : Horse 2 oz ; ox 2 o; ; 
ass 1-2 oz; sheep }£ oz; dog 5 grs. 

Belladonna, extract, anodyne, etc.: Horse2drs; ox2-3drs; ass 1-2 
drs; sheep % dr; dog 1-3 grs. 

Atropia (alkaloid of Belladonna), anodyne, etc.: Horse 1-2 grs; ox 1-2 
grs ; ass I gr ; sheep % gr; dog tV gr. 

Balsam of Peru, stimulant, antispasmodic, expectorant : Horse I oz ; 
ox 1-1^ oz; ass *4-i oz ; sheep 2 drs ; dog J4 dr. 

Benzoin, stimulant, antispasmodic, expectorant: Horse 1 oz; ox l-i}4 
oz; ass }£-! oz; sheep 2 drs; dog }£ dr. 

Borax, nerve sedative, uterine stimulant: Horse 2-6 drs; ox }&-i oz; 
ass 2-4 drs; sheep^-ldr; swine j£ dr; dog 5-10 grs. Locally astringent, 
parasiticide. 

Bismuth, subnitrate, soothes irritation of the stomach and bowels : 
Horse 2 drs; ox 2-4 drs; ass 1-2 drs; sheep 20 grs; swine 10-20 grs ; dog 
5- 10 grs. Locally soothing, healing. 

Blackberry root, astringent : Horse 2-4 drs ; ox ^ oz ; ass 2 drs ; 
sheep 2 scr ; dog % scr. 

Blue-stone (copper sulphate). 

Boneset, stimulant, tonic, diaphoretic: Horse j£-l oz; ox I oz ; ass % 
oz; sheep 2-3 drs; swine 2 drs; dog j^-i dr. 

Bromide of potassium, nerve sedative : Horse 2-4 drs ; ox 4 drs ; ass 
2-3 drs ; sheep j£ dr; dog 5-10 grs. 

BuCHU, stimulant, diuretic : Horse 4 drs ; ox %- 1 oz ; ass 3 drs ; sheep 
I dr ; dog 10-20 grs. 

Buckthorn syrup, purgative: dog y£-i oz. 

Calomel, purgative: Horse 1 dr; ox 1-2 drs; ass 1 dr; swine 1 scr, 
dog 34 grs. Alterative: Horse I scr; ox 1-3 scr; ass I scr; swine 3-4 grs; 
dog Yz-\ gr. 

Camphor, calmative, antispasmodic: Horse 1-2 drs; 0x2-4 drs; ass I 
dr; sheep 1 scr; dog 3-10 grs. 

Cantharides, stimulant, diuretic: Horse 5 grs; ox 5-10 grs; ass 3-5 
grs; sheep 1-2 grs; dog Ye-]/i gr. Locally blister. 

Capsicum, Cayenne pepper, stimulant, aromatic : Horse 2-3 drs ; ox 2-4 
drs; ass 1-2 drs; sheep I scr; swine ^-1 scr; dog 2-5 grs. Locally irri- 
tant. 

Caraway seed, stomachic: Horse 1 oz; ox 1-2 oz; ass 1 oz; sheep 2-3 
drs : swine 2 drs ; dog I scr. 

Cardamoms, stomachic : Horse I oz ; ox 1-2 oz ; ass I oz ; sheep 2-3 drs ; 
swine 2 drs ; dog 1 scr. 

Cascarilla, stimulant, bifter tonic: Horse ^-1 oz; ox 1 oz; ass 4-6 
drs ; sheep I dr ; dog 10 grs. 

Carbolic acid, sedative, anodyne, astringent, antiseptic, disinfectant: 
Horse }i-i dr; ox 1 dr; ass % dr; sheep 10 drops; dog 5 drops. 

Castor-oil, purgative: Horse 1 p|t; ox 1-1^ pts ; ass 1 pt; sheep 3-4 
oz; dog %-i oz. 

Catechu, astringent : Hqrse2-5dr$; ox 3-8 drs; ass 2-3 drs; sheep 1-? 
drs ; dog 10-30 grs. 



494 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



Chamomile, stimulant, tonic: Horse I oz; ox 1-2 oz; ass 1 oz; sheep 2 
drs ; dog J4 dr. 

Cherry bark, wild, expectorant : Horse % oz ; sheep 2-3 scr ; swine 
2 scr; dog 1 scr. 

Chloral-hydrate, sedative, antispasmodic : Horse, % oz ; ass %-% 
oz ; sheep I dr ; dog 20 grs. Soporific : Horse I oz ; sheep 2-3 drs ; dog 
Vz dr. 

Chloroform, stimulant: Horse 1-2 drs; ass I dr; sheep I scr; dog 5-10 
drops. Anaesthetic. 

Cinchona, Peruvian bark, bitter tonic, antiseptic, antiperiodic : Horse 
1-3 oz; ass I oz; sheep 2-4 drs; dog 1 dr. 

Cinnamon, stomachic: Horse 4-6 drs; ox^-ioz; ass 4-6 drs; sheep 
1-2 drs ; dog 10-20 grs. 

Cod-liver oil, tonic : Horse 4-6 oz ; ox 6-8 oz ; ass 4-6 oz ; sheep 1-2 
oz ; dog }i, oz. 

Colchicum, diuretic, sedative: Horse %-l dr; ox 1-2 drs; ass % dr; 
sheep %, scr ; dog 2-8 grs. 

Colocynth, bitter purgative : dog 2-5 grs. 

Columbo, bitter tonic : Horse 4-6 drs; ox^-1 oz; ass 2-3 drs ; sheep 
y 2 -\ dr; dog 10 grs. 

Conium, extract, sedative : Horse I dr; ox 1-2 drs; ass y z -\ dr; sheep 
10-15 grs ; swine 10 grs; dog 2-5 grs. 

Copaiva, stimulant, diuretic, expectorant : Horse 2-4 drs ; ox 3-4 drs ; 
ass 2-3 drs; sheep y z -\ dr; dog 10 drops. 

Copper, ammoniated, tonic, antispasmodic, astringent : Horse 1-2 drs ; 
ox 1-2 drs ; ass I dr : sheep 10-20 grs ; dog 1-5 grs . 

Copper, iodide, tonic, discutient : Horse 1-2 drs. 

Copper, sulphate, tonic, astringent: Horse J^-i dr; ox 1-2 drs; ass 
y z dr ; sheep 10 grs ; dog 2-4 grs. 

Croton seeds, purgative : Horse 10-12; ox 15-20; ass 8-10; sheep 2-3; 
dog 1-2. 

CROTON oil, purgative: Horse 15-20 drops ; ox 20-30 drops ; ass 12-18 
drops ; sheep 5-8 drops ; dog 3-4 drops. 

Cream of tartar, diuretic : Horse 1 oz ; sheep 4-6 drs ; dog 1 jdr. 
Laxative: Horse 5 oz; ox5-8oz; ass5oz; sheep 1-2 oz ; dog y 2 oz. 

Dandelion extract, taraxacum, diuretic, laxative, bitter: Horse 
I-i^ oz; ox 2 oz; ass I oz; sheep 3 drs; dog I dr. 

Digitalis, sedative, diuretic: Horse 15-20 grs; ox %-\ dr; ass 15 grs; 
sheep 5-15 grs; swine 2-10 grs; dog 1-3 grs. 

Dover's powder, sedative, diaphoretic : Horse 3 drs ; ox 3-4 drs ; ass 2 
drs ; sheep 2 scr ; swine I scr ; dog 2-4 grs. 

Ergot, checks bleeding, parturient: Horse %-\ oz; ox 1 oz; ass % oz; 
sheep 1-2 drs; dog % dr. 

Ether, diffusible stimulant : Horse 1-2 oz; 0x2-3 oz; ass l oz > snee P 
Yz oz ; swine 2-4 drs ; dog 1 dr. 

Fennel seed, stomachic: Horse 1 oz; ox 1-2 oz; ass I oz; sheep 2-4 
drs ; dog y^ dr. 



Appendix. 493 

FlLlX MAS., EXTRACT, MALE SHIELD-FERN, vermifuge, tseniacide : Horse 
I oz; sheep %, dr; dog 10-20 drops. 

Galls, oak, astringent: Horse 4-6 drs; ox 1-2 oz; ass 4 drs; sheep 
j£-i scr; swine 1-2 scr; dog 1-3 grs. 

Gallic and tannic acid, tannin, astringent: Horse 1-3 scr; ass 1-2 
scr; sheep 5 grs; dog 1-3 grs. 

Gentian, bitter tonic : Horse 4 drs; ox %-i oz; ass 4 drs; sheep 1-2 
drs ; dog 10-20 grs. 

Ginger, stimulant, stomachic: Horse I oz ; ox 2 oz; ass J^-i oz; sheep 
^2 oz ; swine 2 drs ; dog 2 scr. 

Glauber salts (soda sulphate). 

Henbane, hyoscyamus, extract, sedative, antispasmodic : Horse 2 drs ; 
ox 2-4 drs ; ass 1-2 drs ; sheep %-\ dr ; swine % dr ; dog 5 grs. 

Hemp, Indian, extract, antispasmodic, soporific, narcotic: Horse %-\ 
dr; ass ^ dr; sheep 10-15 grs; swine 5-10 grs; dog 1-2 grs. 

Hydrocyanic acid (prussic). 

Iodine, alterative, discutient : Horse 10-20 grs ; ox 20-30 grs ; ass 10 grs , 
sheep 5-10 grs; swine 5 grs; dog 1-2 grs. 

Iodide of potassium, alterative, diuretic: Horse %-\ dr; ox 1-2 drs; 
ass ^ dr; sheep 3 scr; swine 1-2 scr; dog I scr. 

Ipecacuanha, emetic, sedative : Swine 1-2 drs; dog 15-20 grs. Diapho- 
retic, expectorant : Swine y^ dr ; dog 3-5 grs. 

Jalap, purgative: Swine 1-2 drs; dog %-i dr. 

Iron, peroxide, tonic : Horse 2-4 drs ; ox 4 drs ; ass 2 drs ; sheep 1 dr j 
dog 5-10 grs. Antidote to arsenic. 

Iron, sulphate, tonic: Horse 2-4 drs; ass 2 drs; sheep 1 dr; swine j£ 
dr; dog 2-5 grs. 

Iron, carbonate, tonic : Horse 2-4 drs ; ass 2 drs ; sheep I dr ; swine 
y 2 dr; dog 2-5 grs. 

Iron, iodide, tonic, discutient: Horse %,-2. drs; ox 1-2 drs; ass j£-l 
dr; sheep 15-30 grs; swine 10-20 grs; dog 1-8 grs. 

Iron, tincture of muriate, astringent, checks bleeding: Horse %-\ oz; 
ox 1-2 oz; ass ^ oz; sheep %-X dr; swine 10-30 drops ; dog 5-10 drops. 

Kino, astringent; Horse }& oz ; ox %-i oz; ass 2-4 drs; sheep 1-2 drs; 
swine j£-i dr; dog 10 grs. 

Kousso, vermifuge : Sheep 2-3 oz ; dog 1 oz. 

Laudanum (opium). 

Lead acetate (sugar of lead), astringent, sedative: Horse 1-2 scr; 
ox 2-3 scr; ass 1 scr; sheep 10-15 g rs > dog 2-5 grs. 

Lime-water, antacid, astringent : Horse 4-5 oz ; ox 4-8 oz ; ass 4 oz ; 
sheep 1 oz ; dog 1 dr. 

Lime, carbonate, chalk, antacid, astringent : Horse 1-2 oz ; ox 2-4 oz ; 
ass I oz ; sheep 2-4 drs ; dog 8-12 grs. 

Lime, chloride, chlorinated, checks tympany, disinfectant: Horse 
2-4 drs; ass 2 drs; sheep 1-2 drs. 

Linseed oil, laxative: Horse 1-2 pts; ox 1-2 qts; ass 1 pt; sheep 
l A pt. 



496 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

Lobelia, sedative, antispasmodic, expectorant: Horse 1-2 drs; 0x1-3 
drs; ass I dr; sheep 15 grs; swine 5-15 grs; dog 1-5 grs. 

Magnesia, antacid, laxative, antidote to arsenic: Horse I-2oz; 0x2-4 
cz ; sheep I oz. 

Magnesia, sulphate, Epsom salts, laxative . ox 1-2 lbs ; sheep 4-6 oz. 

Mallow, demulcent: Freely. 

Mentha piperita (peppermint). 

Mercury with chalk, hydrargrum cum creta, antacid, laxative: 
Calf 10-15 grs; dog 5-10 grs. 

Mercurial pill, blue pill, laxative : Dog 5 grs. 

Mercury, subchloride (calomel). 

Muriatic acid, hydrochloric acid, tonic, astringent, caustic, disin- 
fectant: Horse I dr; ox 2 drs; ass I dr; sheep 20 drops; dog 2-5 drops. 

Myrrh, stimulant, tonic : Horse 2-4 drs ; ox 4-6 drs ; ass 2 drs ; sheep 
1-2 drs; dog 15-20 grs. 

Nitre (potassa nitrate). 

Nitric acid, tonic, astringent, caustic: Horse 1 dr; 0x2 drs; ass I dr; 
Bheep 20 drops ; dog 2-5 drops. 

Nux VOMICA, nerve stimulant, tonic: Horse 10-30 grs; ox 20-40 grs; 
ass 10-20 grs ; sheep 5-15 grs ; dog ^-3 grs. 

Oak bark, astringent : Horse 1 oz ; ox 2-4 oz ; ass I oz ; sheep 4 drs ; 
swine 2-3 drs ; dog 1-2 drs. 

Olive oil, laxative: Horse 1-2 pts ; ox 2-3 pts; ass I pt; sheep 3-6 oz; 
dog 1-3 oz. 

Opium, narcotic, sedative, anodyne, antispasmodic: Horse %-2 drs; oz 
2-4 drs; ass y 2 -\ dr; sheep 10-20 grs; dog ^-3 grs. 

Opium, tincture, laudanum, narcotic, sedative, anodyne, antispasmodic: 
Horse 1-2 oz; ox 2 oz; ass^-l oz; sheep 2-3 drs; dog 15-30 drops. 

Morphia, muriate, narcotic, sedative, anodyne, antispasmodic: Horse 
3-5 grs; ox 5-10 grs; ass 3 grs; sheep^-l gr; dog %.y z gr. 

Peppermint, oil, stomachic, antispasmodic : Horse 20 drops ; ox 20-30 
drops ; ass 20 drops ; sheep 5-10 drops ; swine 5 drops ; dog 3-5 drops. 

Peruvian bark (cinchona). 

Pepper, black, white, stomachic, stimulant: Horse 2 drs; ox 3 drs; 
ass 2 drs; sheep 1-2 scr; dog 5-10 grs. 

Pimento, stomachic, stimulant : Horse 2 drs ; ox 3 drs ; ass 2 drs ; sheep 
1-2 scr; dog 5-10 grs. 

Podophyllin, purgative, sedative : Horse 1-2 drs ; ox 2 drs ; ass I dr ; 
sheep 10-20 grs ; swine 6-8 grs ; dog 1-2 grs. 

Pomegranate root bark, vermifuge : Horse 1 oz; ox 1-2 oz; ass 1 oz; 
sheep 2-3 drs; swine 1-2 drs; dog 20-30 grs. 

Potassa acetate, antacid, diuretic, diaphoretic : Horse 6-8 drs ; ox 1 oz ; 
ass 4-6 drs ; sheep 1-2 drs ; dog 10-20 grs. 

Potassa nitrate, diuretic, febrifuge: Horse, 6-8 drs; ex 1 oz; ass 4-6 
drs; sheep 1-2 drs; dog 10-20 grs. 

Potassa bicarbonate, antacid, diuretic : Horse 6-8 drs ; ox 1 oz ; ass 
4-6 drs ; sheep 1-2 drs; dog 10-20 grs. 

Potassa chlorate, stimulant, diuretic, refrigerant, antiseptic: Horse 1-4 
drs; ass 1-2 drs; sheep 20-40 grs; dog 5-15 grs. 



Appendix. 497 



Potassium iodide (iodine). 

Potassium bromide, nerve sedative : Horse j£ oz ; ass 2-4 drs ; sheep 
2 drs ; swine I dr ; dog 20 grs. 

Potassium cyanide, sedative, antispasmodic : Horse 1-2 grs ; ox 2 grs ; 
ass 1-2 grs; sheep ]/ z gr; dog X-K g^ 

Prunus Virginiana (wild cherry). 

Prussic acid, sedative, antispasmodic : Horse 20-30 drops ; ox 30-40 
drops; ass 15-20 drops; sheep 5-8 drops; swine 5 drops; dog 1-3 drops. 

Pumpkin seeds, vermifuge, tseniafuge : Dog ^ oz. 

QuiNlA, SULPHATE, bitter tonic: Horse 20 grs; ox 20-30 grs; ass 15-20 
grs; sheep 6-10 grs ; swine 5-10 grs; dog 2-6 grs. 

Rhubarb, laxative, tonic : Horse 1 oz ; ox 2 oz ; ass 1 oz ; sheep I dr ; 
dog 20 grs. 

Resin, diuretic: Horse 4-6 drs; ox %-i oz; ass 4-6 drs; sheep 2-4 drs; 
swine 2 drs ; dog 20-30 grs. 

Soap, diuretic, antacid, laxative : Horse 1-2 oz ; ass I oz ; sheep 2-6 drs ; 
swine 2-4 drs ; dog 20-60 grs. 

Soda, bicarbonate, antacid, diuretic : Horse 4-6 drs ; ox 4-8 drs ; ass 
4 drs; sheep 1-2 drs; dog 5-30 grs. 

Soda, sulphite, bisulphite, hyposulphite, antiseptic, disinfectant, 
alterative, relieves tympany : Horse I oz ; ox 2-3 oz ; ass I oz ; sheep 2-6 
drs ; swine 2-4 drs ; dog 20-60 grs. 

Soda sulphate (glauber salts), purgative: Horse 1-1% lbs; ox 1-2 
lbs; ass %,- 1 lb; sheep 6 oz. 

Sodium, chloride (common salt), tonic, vermifuge, purgative : Horse 
1-2 oz; ox 2-4 oz; ass I oz; sheep 2-4 drs; swine 1-3 drs; dog 10-30 grs. 

Santonin, wormseed, semen contra, vermifuge : Horse %-i oz ; ass 
4 drs; sheep 2-4 drs; swine 1-3 drs; dog 10-60 grs. 

Squill, diuretic, expectorant: Horse ^ dr; ox }i-\ dr; ass 20-30 grs; 
sheep 10-15 g^; dog 1-5 grs. 

Silver, nitrate (lunar caustic), nerve tonic: Horse 5 grs; 0x5-8 
grs; ass 2-4 grs; sheep 1-2 grs; dog l /i-yi gr. 

Spanish flies (cantharides). 

Spigelia, vermifuge : Horse y 2 -\ oz; ox 1-2 oz; ass ^-1 oz; sheep 2-4 
drs ; swine 2-3 drs ; dog I dr. 

Strychnia, nerve tonic : Horse 1-2 grs; ox I -3 grs; assigr; sheep 
%-l gr; swine ^ gr; dog ^-i'o gr- 

Sulphur, laxative : Horse 3-4 oz ; ox 5-6 oz ; ass 3 oz ; sheep 2 oz ; swine 
\\-2 oz ; dog 2-8 drs. Expectorant, diaphoretic, alterative : Horse 1 oz ; 
ox 1-2 oz ; ass I oz ; sheep 6 drs ; swine 4-6 drs ; dog %-l dr. Parasiticide. 

Sweet spirits of nitre, spirit of nitrous ether, stimulant, antispas- 
modic, diuretic, diaphoretic : Horse 1-2 oz ; ox 3-4 oz ; ass I oz ; sheep 3-6 
drs; dog %-2 drs. 

Stramonium, narcotic, sedative: Horse 20-30 grs ; ox^-ldr; ass 15-30 
grs; sheep 5-10 grs ; swine 4-6 grs ; dog 2 grs. 

Sulphuric acid, tonic, refrigerant, caustic : Horse I dr ; ox 2-4 drs ; 
ass I dr; sheep y^ dr; swine 20 drops; dog 5-10 drops. 

Tobacco, sedative, antispasmodic, vermifuge : Horse 4 drs ; ox 4-6 drs j 
ass 4 drs ; sheep 1 dr ; swine j£ dr ; dog 5-6 grs. 
32 



498 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 

Tar, expectorant, antiseptic: Horse %-i oz; ox %-2 oz; sheep % oz. 

Turpentine oil, stimulant, antispasmodic, diuretic : Horse 1-2 oz ; o? 
1-1% oz; ass ]/ z oz; sheep 1-2 drs; swine 1 dr; dog ^ dr. Vermifuge. 
Horse 2 oz ; ox 2-3 oz ; ass 1-2 oz; sheep 4 drs; swine 2-3 drs ; dogi-2dis. 

ValeriAn, diffusible stimulant, antispasmodic, vermifuge : Horse 2 07 ; 
ox 2-4 oz ; ass 2 oz ; sheep % oz ; swine 2-3 drs ; dog 1-2 drs. 

Valerianate of iron, nerve tonic : Dog 4-5 grs. 

Veratrum, sedative: Horse I scr; ox y 2 -i dr; ass %-i scr; sheep 5- 10 
grs ; swine 5-8 grs ; dog 2 grs. 

Wild cherry bark, expectorant : Horse 1 oz ; ox 1% oz ; ass I oz ; 
sheep 3 drs ; dog 30 grs. 

Zinc carbonate, astringent, tonic : Horse 2 drs ; ox 2-4 drs ; ass 2 drs ; 
sheep yi-\ dr; swine y 2 dr; dog 10-15 grs. 

Zinc, sulphate, astringent, tonic: Horse 1-2 drs; ox 2-3 drs; ass I dr; 
sheep 15-30 grs ; swine 10-20 grs ; dog 2-3 grs. Emetic : Swine 15 grs to 
I dr; dog 8-15 grs. 

BLISTEKING, ETC. 

As an example of a simple blister for the horse the fol- 
lowing may be given : — 

Powdered Cantharides 2 drs. 

Camphor 5 grs. 

Oil of Lavender 10 drops. 

Lard 1 oz. 

Mix thoroughly. When applying it, first cut the hair from 
the part,- then rub the ointment well in with the palm of 
the hand and against the direction of the hair, for four or 
five minutes. The animal should be tied short to a high 
rack or otherwise prevented from reaching the blistered 
surface with his lips until it is well raised. Then the 
application may be washed off with soap-suds and the 
part smeared daily with lard. The blister should not be 
repeated until the effects of the first have passed off. 

For cattle, £ oz. oil of turpentine or 10 grs. tartar 
emetic may be added to the above blister. . For pigs can- 
tharides and turpentine may be used alone, 1 of the for- 
mer to 4 of the latter. For dogs and sheep equal parts of 
strong aqua ammonia and olive-oil may be used and 
rubbed in &p often as may seem requisite. 



INDEX. 



Abductob femoris displaced, 

441 
Abortion, 315 
Abortion from ergot, 156 
Abscess, 11 

Abscess, treatment of, 301 
Abscess, drainage of, 31 
Abscess in bone, 388, 391 
Abscess in bone, symptoms of, 

389 
Abscess in the false nostril, 

169 
Abscess in the guttural 

pouches, 169 
Abscess of the walls of the 

chest, 185 
Acariasis, 369 
Acari, parasitic, 369 
Achorion Schonleini, 367 
Actinomycosis, 131 
Action of medicines, 488 
Acute enteritis, 247 
Acute farcy, 135 
Acute gastric indigestion in 

horses, 240 
Acute glanders, 134 
Acute inflammation of the 

bowels, 247 
Acute intestinal indigestion in 

horses, 241 
Acute muco-enteritis, 249 
Adynamic fever, 26 



After-birth, retained, 322 

Ages, doses for different, 489 

Air in the chest, 184 

Air in veins, 213 

Albuminoids in the blood, im- 
perfect oxidation of, 277 

Albuminous urine, 298 

Albuminuria, 298 

Alkalies, 25 

Amaurosis, 338 

Ansemia, 162 

Anasarca, 159 

Anchylosis, 399 

Aneurisms, 211 

Animal plagues, radical extinc- 
tion of, 72 

Animals, doses for different, 
489 

Anthrax, bacillar, 112 

Anthrax, apoplectic, 118 

Anthrax, emphysematous, 123 

Anthrax fever, in birds, 120 ; 
cattle, 119 ; horses, 119 ; 
sheep, 120 ; swine, 120 

Anthrax in dogs and cats, 118 

Anthrax in man, 118 

Anthrax of the throat, 117 

Anthrax, prevention of, 122, 
125 

Anthrax, treatment of, 120, 
124 

Anthrax, vibrionic, 123 



500 



Index. 



Anus, fistula in, 260 


Biliary calculi, 287 


Anus, imperforate, 261 


Bilious fever in horses, 99 


Aphthous fever, 87 


Bird acari, 372 


Apoplectic anthrax, 118 


Bird cholera, 130 


Apoplexy, 345 


Bird-lice, 376 


Apoplexy of the lung, 186 


Bird-pox, 87 


Appendix, 488 


Birds, impacted crop in, 232 


Appetite, depraved, 245 


Birds, pulse in, 199 


Arm-hone, fracture of, 422 


Bistouri cache, 331 


Arterial haemorrhage, 209 


Bit and curb, injuries by, 409 


Arteries, dilatation of, 211 


Black pigment tumors, 485 


Arteries, diseases of, 209 


Black-quarter, 116, 123 


Arteries, inflammation of, 210 


Black-tongue, 116 


Arteries, wounds of, 209 


Black water, 279 


Arteritis, 210 


Bladder, eversion of, 302 


Arthritis, 399 


Bladder, inflammation of, 300 


Ascites, 262 


Bladder, paralysis of, 300 


Ascites in parturition, 322 


Bladder, spasm of its neck, 


Asiatic cholera, 102 


299 


Asthma, 186 


Bladder, stone in, 306 


Atrophy of the heart, 203 


Bleeding, general, 21 


Auscultation, 165, 200 


Bleeding, local, 21 


Azotsemia, 277 


Bleeding from arteries, 209 


Azoturia, 277 


Bleeding from the lungs, 189 




Bleeding from the nose, 167 


Back and loins, fractures of, 


Bleeding from the womb, 322 


413 


Bleeding from veins, 211 


Back and loins, sprains of, 414 


Bleeding in the bowels from 


Back tendons, sprains of, 430 


liver disease, 275 


Bacteria, 37 


Blistering, 498 


Bacteria, how they live, 38 


Bloating, 232 


Bacteria and blood-globules, 


Blood exudations, 8 


battle of, 40 


Bloodlessness, 162 


Baths, 22 


Blood-poisoning from imper- 


Beef tape-worm, 150 


fect oxidation of albumi- 


Bellyache, 246 


noids, 277 


Belly, dropsy of, 262 


Blood spavin, 453, 454 


Beri-beri, 141 


Bloody flux, 253 


Big-head, 394, 131 


Bloody milk, 328 



Index. 



501 



Bloody murrain, 116, 123 


Bowels, obstruction ©f, 255 


Bloody urine, 296 


Brain, inflammation of, 346 


Blow-flies, 374 


Breech presentation, 321 


Blowing murmurs in the heart, 


Bright 's disease, 298 


201 


Bristle-balls, 245 


Blue disease, 202 


Broken-down, 431 


Blue milk, 328 


Broken knees, 426 


Bog spavin, 361 


Broken ribs, 185, 415 


Boils, 365 


Broken wind, 188 


Bone, death of, 388, 391 


Bronchitis, 177 


Bone, induration of, 388 


Bronchitis from worms, 193, 


Bone, results of inflammation 


195, 196 


in, 388 


Bronchocele, 157 


Bones, general diseases of, 


Broncho - pleuro - pneumonia, 


385, 387 


184 


Bones, inflammation of, 387 


Broncho-pneumonia, 184 


Bones, softening of, 388, 393 


Buckwheat as a cause of skin 


Bone spavin, 452 


disease, 361 


Bone, suppuration in, 388, 


Bullae, 359 


391 


Bullers, 140 


Bone, symptoms of abscess in, 


Burns, 383 


389 


Bursas, inflamed, 402 


Bone, symptoms of death of, 


Burst, 256 


389 




Bone, symptoms of inflamma- 


Calcifications near inflamed 


tion in, 388 


bones, 388 


Bone, symptoms of ulceration 


Calculi in the gall-ducts, 287 


of, 389 


Calculi, salivary, 227 


Bone, thickening of, 388 


Calculi, urinary, 303 


Bone, treatment of inflamed, 


Callosities of the skin, 366 


390 


Calves and foals, lung worms 


Bone, tubercle in, 392 


in, 193 


Bone, tumor of, 388 


Cancers, 366, 410, 486 


Bone, ulceration in, 388, 391 


Cancer of the orbit, 410 


Bots, 263 


Cancer of the tongue, 220 


Bots in the throat, 171 


Cancroid of the lips, 220 


Bowels, foreign bodies in, 244 


Canine distemper, 101 


Bowels, impacted, 242 


Canine madness, 106 


Bowels, inflammation of, 247 


Canker, 480 



502 



Index. 



Capped hock, 448 


Choking, 229 


Carbolic acid as a disinfectant, 


Cholera, Asiatic, 102 


81 


Cholera, hog, 103 


Carbuncular erysipelas, 117 


Chorea, 341 


Carditis, 207 


Choroiditis, 335 


Carious teeth, 223 


Chronic bronchitis, 178 


Carpitis, 424 


Chronic farcy, 136 


Castration, evil effects of, 313 


Chronic glanders, 135 


Castration of males, 312 ; fe- 


Chronic indigestion in horses, 


males, 314 ; birds, 315 


243 


Cataract, 337 


Chronic roaring, 175 


Catarrh, malignant, 170 


Cirrhosis, 287 


Catarrh, nasal, 167 


Classification of contagious 


Catarrh of stomach and bow- 


diseases, 34 


els, 243 


Clots on the valves of the 


Catarrh of womb or vagina, 


heart, 206 


323 


Cleanliness as a disinfectant, 


Cat-flea, 376 


78 


Cattle, lung plague in, 91 


Cerebral meningitis, 346 


Cattle, malignant catarrh in, 


Cerebritis, 346 


170 


Cerebro-spinal fever, 347 


Cattle, measles in, 150 


Cerebro-spinal meningitis, 347 


Cattle plague, 89 


Coal-tar as a disinfectant, 81 


Cattle, tape-worm in, 150 


Coenurus cerebralis, 144 


Caustic potassa and soda as 


Coffin-bone, distortion of, 476 


disinfectants, 82 


Coffin- joint lameness, 463 


Chafing of the skin, 358 


Cold drink, indigestion from, 


Charcoal as a disinfectant, 79 


239 


Chest, air or gas in, 184 


Cold in the head, 167 


Chest diseases, signs of, 164 


Colic, spasmodic, 246 


Chest, water in, 182, 184 


Colic, tympanitic, 241 


Chest, wounds of, 416 


Collapse of the lung, 185 


Chicken cholera, 130 


Colloid cancer, 486 


Chigoe, 375 


Coma somnolentum, 344 


Chloride of lime as a disin- 


Congestion of the lungs, 179 


fectant, 81 


Conjunctivitis, 333 


Chloride of zinc as a disin- 


Consumption, 139 


fectant, 82 


Contagious diseases, classifi- 


Chlorine as a disinfectant, 180 


cation of, 34 



Index. 



503 



Contagious diseases, losses 


Cysticercus medio-canelata, 


from, 32 


150 


Contagious diseases prevent- 


Cystitis, 300 


able, 35 


Cysts under the tongue, 220 


Contagious diseases, propaga- 




tion of, 32, 44 


Defekvescence, 17 


Contagious diseases, their im- 


Deformities, 319 


portance, 32 


Demodex, 370 


Contagious lung plague, 91 


Dentinal tumors, 225, 410 


Contraction, 478 


Dentition fever, 225 


Convalescence, 25 


Depraved appetite, 244 


Convulsions, 344 


Dermanyssus, 370 


Convulsions from ergotism, 


Dermatocoptis equi, 370 


155 


Dermatophagus, 369 


Convulsions from teething, 


Dermatophagus equi, 371 


226 


Desquamative nephritis, 293 


Coraco-radial tendon, sprain 


Diabetes insipidus, 295 


of, 420 


Diabetes mellitus, 276 


Cornea, ulcers of, 334 


Diaphoretics, 24 


Corns, 472 


Diarrhoea, 252 


Coronet, fistula of, 479 


Diet, 20 


Coronet, wounds of, 478 


Dietetic and constitutional dis- 


Cow-pox, 84 


eases, 155 


Cracked heels, 362 


Difficult parturition, assistance 


Cranium, fracture of the base 


in, 319 


of, 410 


Diffuse baldness, 368 


Cresylic acid as a disinfectant, 


Digestive organs, diseases of, 


81 


216 


Crib-biting, 221 


Dilatation of the heart, 204 


Crop, impaction of, 232 


Diphtheria, 174 


Croup, 174 


Disease as affecting the action 


Croup, fracture of, 414 


of medicines, 490 


Croupous exudations, 8 


Diseased teeth, 223 


Croupous enteritis, 251 


Diseases of the digestive or- 


Curb, 455 


gans, 216 


Cutting, 434 


Diseases of the foot, 457 


Cyanosis, 202 


Diseases of the heart, 198 


Cystic calculus, 306 


Disease of the membranes of 


Cysticercus cellulosa, 148 


the teeth, 225 



504 



Index. 



Diseases of the respiratory or- 
gans, general causes of, 164 
Disinfection, 78 
Dislocation of the fetlock, 434 
Dislocation of the hip, 442 
Dislocation of the knee, 425 
Dislocation of the knee-cap, 

445 
Dislocation of the lower jaw, 

410 
Dislocation of the shoulder, 

420 
Dislocation of the tail, 415 
Displaced teeth, 222 
Displacements of the heart, 

202 . 
Distemper in dogs, 101 
Distemper in young horses, 95 
Distomum lanceolatum, 288 
Diuresis, 295 
Diuretics, 24 
Diuretics, poisoning by, 295, 

296 
Dog-pox, 87 
Doses, 489, 492 
Doses, graduation of, 489 
Double-headed monster, 321 
Down in the hip, 439 
Drainage in anthrax, 122 
Dropsy of the abdomen, 262 
Dropsy of the lung, 185 
Dropsy of the scrotum, 311 
Dry gangrene from ergot, 156 
Dry murrain, 236 
Drugs and doses, 490, 492 
Dysentery, 253 

Echtnococcus hominis, veteri- 
norum, 147 



Ecthyma, 360 

Eczema, 87, 359 

Eggs of tape-worms, 144 

Elbow, diseases of, 420 

Elbow, fracture of, 421 

Elbow-joint, disease of, 422 

Elbow, tumors of, 420 

Elbow, wounds of, 421 

Emasculation, 312, 315 

Embolism, 8, 210, 212 

Embryo tape-worms, 144 

Encephalitis, 346 

Encephaloid, 485 

Encephaloid of the face, 410 

Endocarditis, 206 

Enlargement of the heart, 203 

Enteritis, 247 

Enteritis, croupous, 251 

Enzootic hsematuria, 279 

Enzootic myelitis, 349 

Epilepsy, 339 

Epithelial cancer, 366 

Epithelioma, 485 

Epizootic aphtha, 87 

Epizootic cerebro-spinal men- 
ingitis, 347 

Epizootic diseases, their im- 
portance, 32 

Epizootic influenza, 96 

Ergotism, 155 

Erysipelas, 378 

Erysipelas, carbuncular, 117 

Eustrongylus gigas, 151 

Eversion of the bladder, 302 

Eversion of the rectum, 259 
Eversion of womb or vagina, 

325 
Examination, of the urine, 294 
Exostosis, 388 



Index. 



505 



Extinction of animal plagues, 


Fever, types of, 19 


75 


Fever, treatment of, 19 


Eye, diseases of, 332 


Fever, cerebro-spinal, 347 


Eye, foreign bodies in, 333 


Fibrinous exudations, 7 


Eye, inflammation of the in- 


Fibula, fraoture of, 446 


terior of, 335 


Firing, 29 


Eyelashes turned in, 332 


Fistula, 383 


Eyelids torn, 332 


Fistula in ano, 260 


Eye, recurring inflammation 


Fistula of the coronet, 479 


of, 336 


Fistula of the poll, 411 


Eye-socket, cancer of, 410 


Fistula, salivary, 227 


Eye, superficial inflammation 


Fistulous withers, 412 


of, 333 


Fits, 344 


Eye, tumors on, 334: 


Fleas, 375 


Eye, ulcers of, 334 


Fleas, attacks of, 376 


Eye, white specks on, 334 


Flooding, 322 




Flukes in the liver, 288 


Facial paralysis, 351 


Foot and mouth disease, 87 


Falling sickness, 339 


Foot, causes of diseases of, 


False quarter, 471 


457 


Farcy, 134 


Foot, diseases of the, 457 


Fasciola hepatica, 288 


Foot, inflammation of, 468 


Fatty degeneration, 14 


Foot-rot, 481 


Fatty heart, 207 


Foot-rot, contagious, 369, 482 


Favus, 367 


Foot-rot, tuberculous, 483 


Fecundity of tape-worms, 144 


Foot, sesamoiditis of, 463 


Fetlock, blows on the inside 


Foot, fractures in the, 467 


of, 434 


Forearm, fracture of, 422 


Fetlock, disease of, 434 


Foreign bodies in stomach and 


Fetlock, dislocation of, 434 


bowels, 244 


Fetlock, puffs in front of, 433 


Foul in the foot, 392, 481, 483 


Fetlock, swelling in front of, 


Founder, 468 


433 


Fractures, 395 


Fever, 15 


Fracture at the base of the 


Fever, premonitory symptoms, 


cranium, 410 


16 


Fractures, bandages for, 396 


Fever, cold stage, 16 


Fractured ribs, 185, 415 


Fever, hot stage, 17 


Fracture inside the hock, 451 


Fever temperature, 18 


Fracture of the arm-bone, 422 



506 



Index. 



Fractures of the back and 

loins, 413 
Fracture of the group, 414 
Fracture of the face-bones, 409 
Fractures in the foot, 467 
Fracture of the forearm, 422 
Fractures of the hip, 439 
Fracture of the knee-cap, 444 
Fracture of the leg, 446 
Fracture of the lower jaw, 408 
Fractures of the neck-bones, 

412 
Fracture of the neck of the 

thigh-bone, 443 
Fracture of the nose, 409 
Fractures of the pastern bones, 

435 
Fracture of the point of the 

elbow, 421 
Fracture of the point of the 

hock, 451 
Fracture of the poll, 409 
Fracture of the shank, 429 
Fracture of the shoulder-blade, 

420 
Fracture of the splint bones, 

429 
Fracture of the upper jaw, 409 
Fragility of bones, 393 
Frog, canker of, 480 
Frog, discharge from, 480 
Frog, inflammation of, 480 
Frontal bones, fracture of, 409 
Fungi in milk, 328 
Furuncle, 365 

Gadfly, 374 

Gadflies of horses, 263 

Gall-ducts, stones in, 287 



Gall-stones, 287 

Gamasus of fodder, 370 

Gangrene from ergot, 156 

Gapes, 196 

Gape-worm, 197 

Gangrene, 14, 156 

Gangrene, dry, 15, 156 

Garget, 329 

Gas in the pleurae, 184 

Gastric fever in horses, 99 

Gastric parasites, 263 

Gastritis in oxen, 238 

Generation, diseases of the or- 
gans of, 310 

Germs the cause of plagues, 
35 

Germs, where propagated, 36 

Germs, characters of, 37 

Germs, products of, 40 

Germs, how they poison, 40, 
52 

Germs of specific diseases, 45 

Germicides, 78 

Gid, 144 

Glander heaves, 178 

Glanders, 134 

Glass eyes, 338 

Gleet, 301 

Gloss anthrax, 116 

Gluteus, sprain of, 440 

Goat-pox, 86 

Goitre, 157 

Gonorrhoea, 30 

Granulation, 12 

Granule corpuscles, 13 

Grapes, 363 

Gravel, 303 

Grease, 361 

Grease, parasitic, 369 



Index. 



507 



Grub in the head, 168, 190 
Gullet, dilatation of, 232 
Gullet, stricture of, 232 
Gums, inflamed, 219 
Gut-tie, 255 
Guttural pouches, abscess of, 

169 
Guttural tumors in swine, 117 

HeMATOPINUS, 376 

Hsematuria, 296 
Hematuria, enzootic, 277, 279 
Haemoptysis, 189 
Haemorrhage from arteries, 

209 
Hsemorrhagic enteritis, 247 
Hair-balls, 245 
Hamstring, rupture of, 448 
Hamstring, sprain of, 448 
Hard cancer, 485 
Healing by first intention, 12 
Healing by second intention, 

12 
Heart, atrophy of, 203 
Heart, auscultation of, 200 
Heart, blowing murmurs in, 

201 
Heart, clots on its valves, 206 
Heart, dilatation of, 204 
Heart, diseases of, 198 
Heart, disease of its valves, 207 
Heart, enlargement of, 203 
Heart, fatty degeneration of, 

207 
Heart, hypertrophy of, 203 
Heart, parasites in, 208 
Heart, rupture of, 207 
Heart-sack, inflammation of, 

204 



Heart, wounds of, 204 

Heat apoplexy, 354 

Heat as a disinfectant, 79 

Heaves, 188 

Heels, bruises of, 472 

Heels, diseases of, 361 

Heels, distorted, 476 

Helophilus, 266 

Hemiplegia, 351 

Hen-louse, 370 

Hepatirrhoea, 283 

Hepatitis, 284 

Hereditary epilepsy, 340 

Hereditary heaves, 188 

Hereditary ophthalmia, 336 

Hernia, 256 

Herpes, 359 

High breeding and heart dis- 
ease, 207 

Hip, dislocated, 442 

Hip, fractures of, 439 

Hip-joint, disease of, 442 

Hippobosca ovina, 375 

Hip, sprain of the, 440 

Hock, dropsy of, 454 

Hock, elastic swelling in front 
of the outer side of, 450 

Hock-joint, inflammation of, 
453 

Hock, fractures of, 442, 452 

Hock, fractures of point of, 
451 

Hock, sprain behind the, 455 

Hock, sprain of the flexor be- 
hind the, 450 

Hock, sprain of the flexor of, 
447 

Hock, tendon displaced from 
the point of, 459 



508 



Index. 



Hock, thorough-pin of, 450 


Indigestion in horses, 240, 


Hog cholera, 103 


241, 243 


Honey-dew as a cause of skin 


Indigestion, intestinal, 241 


disease, 361 


Inflammation, 1 


Hoof-bound, 478 


Inflammation, treatment of, 19 


Hoofs, contracted, 478 


Inflammation in vascular tis- 


Hoofs, loss of, from eating er- 


sues, 2 


got, 156 


Inflammation, phenomena of, 


Hoof, natural state of, 460 


2 


Hoof- wall, cracks in, 470 


Inflammation, blood in, 3 


Hoof-wall, powdery degenera- 


Inflammation, blood-vessels in, 


tion of, 480 


2 


Hoose, 193 


Inflammation, types of, 4 


Hoove, 232 


Inflammation in n on -vascular 


Horn, natural state of, 460 


tissues, 4 


Horny tumor in the heel, 472 


Inflammation, cell-production 


Horny tumor of the lamina?, 


in, 5 


471 


Inflammation, cell-migrations 


Horse-pox, 83 


in, 5 


Husk, 193 


Inflammation, exudations in, 6 


Hydrocele, 311 


Inflammation of the lungs, 


Hydi'ocephalus in parturition, 


180 


321 


Inflammatory new formations, 


Hydrorachitis, 349 


9 


Hydrophobia, 106 


Influenza, 96 


Hydrothorax, 184, 182 


Injuries to the loins, 296, 419 


Hypertrophy of the heart, 203 


Intercostal abscess, 185 




Internal ophthalmia, 335 


ICTEKCS, 281 


Intestinal catarrh from liver 


Impacted crop, 232 


disease, 275 


Impacted large intestines, 242 


Intestinal fever of swine, 103 


Impacted third stomach, 236 


Intestinal worms, 266 


Imperforate anus, 261 


Intestinal worms, symptoms 


Impervious teat, 330 


of, 271 


Impetigo, 360 


Invagination, 255 


Indigestion from cold water, 


Iritis, 335 


239 


Irregular strangles, 95 


Indigestion in calves, foals, 


Itch, 369 


etc., 239 


Ixodes, 374 



Index. 



509 



Jaundice, 281 


Lathyrus sativa as causing 


Jaws, open j®int between, 410 


palsy, 177 


Joints, diseases of, 398 


Laxatives, 24 


Joints, eburnation in, 399 


Lead poisoning, 353 


Joints, general diseases of, 


Leptus Americana, 371 


385 


Lethargy from ergotism, 155 


Joints, inflammation of, 399 


Leucorrhcea, 323 


Joints, matter in, 400 


Leukaemia, 292 


Joints, tuberculous disease of, 


Lice, 376 


400 


Lime as a disinfectant, 82 


Joints, ulceration in, 399 


Lips, cancroid of, 220 




Lips, warts on, 220 


Keraphyllocele, 471 


Liver, atrophy of, 287 


Kidneys, inflammation of, 297 


Liver, cancer of, 287 


Kidney-worm, 151 


Liver, chronic inflamrmation 


Knee, bruise on inner side of, 


of, 286 


425 


Liver, congestion of, 283 


Knee-cap, fracture of, 444 


Liver disease, general symp- 


Knee-cap, dislocation of, 445 


toms of, 274 


Knee, dislocation of, 425 


Liver, fatty degeneration of, 


Knee, inflammation of, 424 


287 


Knee, puffs in front of, 423 


Liver, fibrous degeneration of, 


Knee, sprains behind, 423 


287 


Knee, synovial swellings be- 


Liver, hypertrophy of, 287 


hind, 423 ; in front of, 423 


Liver, inflammation of, 284 


Knee, wounds of, 423 


Liver, parasites of, 288 




Liver-rot, 288 


Labor, premature, 318 


Liver, softening of, 287 


Lameness, 385 


Liver, tubercle of, 287 


Laminae, horny tumor of, 471 


Lock-jaw, 342 


Laminitis, 468 


Loins, injuries, to 296 


Laminitis, chronic, 470 


Loins, laceration of the mus- 


Lampas, 218 


cles beneath the, 414 


Lard-worm of swine, 151 


Losses from contagious dis- 


Large intestines, impaction of, 


eases, 32 


242 


Loss of veins, 212 


Laryngitis, 171 


Lower jaw, dislocation of, 410 


Lateral cartilages, ossified, 


Lower jaw, fracture of, 408 


466 


Lump jaw, 131 



510 



Index. 



Lung, apoplexy of, 186 
Lung, collapse of, 416 
Lungs, bleeding from, 189 
Lungs, congestion of, 179, 

202 
Lung fever of cattle, 91 
Lungs, inflammation of, 180 
Lung-worms, 191 
Lymph, 7 

Lymph developing, 13 
Lymph degenerating, 13 
Lymphadenoma, 292 
Lymphangitis, 213 
Lymphangitis, local, 215 
Lymphatics, diseases of, 213 
Lymphatics, inflammation of, 

213 

Maceococcus, 38 
Madness in dogs, 106 
Maggots, 374 
Malignant anthrax, 112 
Malignant anthrax, local treat- 
ment of, 121 
Malignant anthrax, prevention 

of, 122 
Malignant anthrax, treatment 

of, 121 
Malignant anthrax with exter- 
nal swellings, 115 
Malignant catarrh, 170 
Malignant cholera, 102 
Malignant pustule, 118 
Malignant sore-throat, 117 
Mallenders, 364 
Malleolus, fracture of, 451 
Mal-presentation, 319 
Mammae, diseases of, 328 
Mamma, tumors of, 331 



Mammitis, 329 

Man, anthrax in, 118, 113 

Man, aphthous fever in, 88 

Mange, 369 

Man, glanders in, 134 

Man, hydrophobia in, 106 

Manifolds, impacted, 236 

Matter in the guttural pouch- 
es, 169 

Matter in the nasal sinuses, 
168 

Maxims, obstetric, 319 

Measles (parasitic) in cattle, 
150 ; in swine, 148 

Medicines, action of, 488 ; as 
affected by age, 489 ; as af- 
fected by disease, 490 ; as 
affected by idiosyncrasy, 
490 ; as affected by genus, 
490, 492 

Medicines, doses of, 492 

Medicines, explanation of 
names of, 488 

Medicines, form to administer, 
490 

Medicines, frequency of ad- 
ministration of, 490 

Megrims, 341 

Melanosis, 366, 13 

Mellituria, 276 

Melophagus ovina, 375 

Membrane lining the chest, 
inflammation of, 182 

Membrane of the abdomen, in- 
flammation of, 261 

Mercurial sore mouth, 217, 
219 

Mesenteric glands, pentasto- 
ma (linguatula) in, 191 



Index. 



511 



Metacarpus, periostitis of, 428 


Neck-bones, fractures of, 412 


Metritis, 325 


Neck of the bladder, spasm of, 


Microbes, 38 


299 


Micrococcus, 38 


Necrosis, 388, 391 


Microphytes causing disease, 


Necrosis, symptoms of, 389 


38, 45 


Nephritis, 297 


Microsporion Adouinii, 368 


Nephritis, desquamative, 298 


Miliary tuberculosis, 47 


Nervous diseases, general 


Milk, bloody, 328 


causes of, 339 


Milk, blue, 328 


Nervous disorder from ergot- 


Milk, concretions from, 330 


ism, 155 


Milk fever, 326 


Nervous disorders from liver 


Milking tube, 330 


disease, 275 


Milk sickness, 133 


Nervous irritation of the skin, 


Milk, viscid, 328 


365 


Milt, diseases of, 291 


Nervous system, diseases of, 


Moon-blindness, 336 


339 


Moor-ill, 279 


Neurosis of the skin, 365 


Morbid growths, 484 


Nodular swelling of the skin, 


Mouth, inflammation of, 217 


364 


Mouth, tumors in, 220 


Non-presentation of head or 


Muco-enteritis, 249 


members, 320, 321 


Mucous exudations, 7 


Nose, bleeding from, 167 


Muguet, 219 


Nose, fracture of, 409 


Muscles, diseases of, 404 


Nose, parasites in, 190 


Muscles, general diseases of, 


Nose, pentastoma in, 191 


385 


Nose, tumors in, 170 


Muscles, inflamed, 404 


Nostril, abscess of, 169 


Muscles, ruptures of, 404 




Muzzle for crib-biting, 222 


Oat-hair calculi, 245 


Myelitis, 347 


Obstruction of the bowels, 255 


Myelitis, enzootic, 349 


(Estrus bovis, 374 


Myositis, 404 


(Estrus equi, 263 




CEstrus ovis, 190 


Nails, pricks and binding with, 


Oidium batracosis, 369 


474 


Open coffin- joint, 475 


Nasal catarrh, 167 


Open joint, 400, 401 


Nasal sinuses, matter in, 168 


Open joint, between upper and 


Navicular disease, 463 


lower jaw, 410 



512 



Index. 



Ophthalmia, enzootic, 334 


Parasites in arteries, 210, 211 


Ophthalmia, internal, 335 


Parasites in the heart, 208 


Ophthalmia, recurring, 336 


Parasites in the lower air-pas- 


Ophthalmia, simple, 333 


sages, 191 


Optic nerve, palsy of, 338 


Parasites in the stomach, 263 


Orchitis, 310 


Parasitic acari, 369 


Ostitis, symptoms of, 388 


Parasitic grease, 369 


Ostitis, treatment of, 390 


Parotid, inflammation of, 228 


Overgrown teeth, 222 


Parotitis, 228 


Overloaded paunch, 234 


Parrot-mouth, 221 


Ox-tick, 373 


Parturient apoplexy, 326 


Ozone as a disinfectant, 79 


Parturition, assistance in, 319 




Parturition, difficult, 317 ; dis- 


Palate, congested, 218 


orders following, 322 


Palpation, 200 


Parturition fever, 326 


Palpitation, 201 


Parturition, premature, 315 


Palsy, 350 


Pastern, bony growth on the, 


Palsy, local, 351 


436 


Palsy of the lateral half of the 


Pastern, fractures of the, 435 


body, 351 


Pastern, sprains behind the, 


Palsy of the ear, 351 


438 


Palsy of the face, 351 


Patella, dislocation of, 445 


Palsy of the hind limbs, 351 


Paunch, overloaded, 234 


Palsy of the nerve of sight, 


Paunch, tympany of, 232 


338 


Pedal bone, distortions of, 


Pampering a cause of liver 


476 


disease, 275 


Pedal sesamoiditis, 475 


Pancreas, diseases of, 291 


Pelvis, fractures of, 439 


Paralysis from ergotism, 155 


Penis, amputation of, 312 


Paralysis from lathyrus sati- 


Penis, disease of, 311 


vus, 176 


Penis, ulcers on, 312 


Paralysis, general, 350 


Pentastomatsenioides, 168, 191 


Paralysis of the bladder, 300 


Percussion, 165 


Papules, 358 


Perforans, sprain of, 450 


Paraphymosis, 314 


Pericarditis, 204 


Paraplegia, 351, 413 


Periodic ophthalmia, 336 


Parasites, 143 


Periosteotomy, 428 


Parasites in the nose, 190 


Periostitis, symptoms of, 389 


Parasites on the skin, 366 


Periostitis, treatment of, 398 



Index. 



513 



Peritonitis, 261 


Pleurodynia, 186 


Pharyngeal anthrax, 117 


Pleuro-pneumonia, 184 


Pharyngitis, 161 


Pleuro-pneumonia contagiosa, 


Phlebitis, 212 


91 


Phlebitis, diffuse, 212 


Plugging the nose, 168 


Phosphatic calculi, 245 


Plugging of arteries, 210, 212 


Phrenitis, 346 


Pneumonia, 180 


Phymosis, 314 


Pneumothorax, 184 


Physical signs of chest dis- 


Podo-trochilitis, 463 


eases, 165 


Poisoning by lead, 353 


Pigmentation, 13 


Poll-evil, 411 


Pigs, lung- worm in, 196 


Poll, fracture of, 409 


Piles, 259 


Polypus in the vagina, 319 


Piles from liver disease, 275 


Polyuria, 295 


Pimples, 358 


Porcelaneous deposit, 499 


Pin-worms in arteries, 211 


Pork tape-worm, 149 


Pining, 139 


Premature labor pains, 318 


Pityriasis, 364 


Presentations, abnormal, 319 


Pityriasis, parasitic, 368 


Prevalence of contagious dis- 


Plague, Russian cattle, 89 


eases, 33 


Plagues of Egypt, 33 


Pricks, 474 


Plagues, propagation of, 33 


Profuse staling, 295 


Plagues, to protect the system 


Prolapsus uteri vaginae, 324 


from, 46 


Propagation of animal plagues, 


Plagues, immunity from, by 


33 


hygiene, 56 ; by tonics, etc., 


Protection against a plague, 


57 ; by a first attack, 57 ; 


how effected, 46 


by passing through an al- 


Protective inoculations, 57 


lied disease, 58 ; immunity 


Proud -flesh, 28, 382 


by a minimum inoculation, 


Prurigo, 365 


58 ; by local caustics, 58 ; by 


Puffs in front of the knee, 


inoculating unimportant or- 


423 


gans, 59 ; in veins, 59 ; in 


Pulmonary congestion, 179 


modified virus, 60 ; in ster- 


Pulmonary inflammation, 181 


ilized products, 64; radical 


Pulse in disease, 199 


extinction of, 72 


Pulse, its characters, 198 


Pleurae, gas in, 184 


Pumice feet, 470 


Pleurae, inflammation of, 182 


Purgatives, administration of, 


Pleurisy, 182 


490 



514 



Index. 



Purpura, 186 

Purpura, hseruorrhagica, 18, 

67 
Purulent infection, 125 
Pus, 11 ; in globules, 11 
Pustules, 360 
Pustules in the heels, 362 
Pysemia, 125 

Quadrupeds, pulse in, 198 
Quarter-crack, 470 
Quebra bunda, 142 
Quittor, 472, 479 

Babies, 106 ; dumb, 108 ; fu- 
rious, 108 ; lethargic, 109 ; 
paralytic, 109 

Rabies, fallacies concerning, 
108 

Rat-tailed maggots, 266 

Eectum, eversion of, 259 

Rectum, inflammation of, 252 

Recurring ophthalmia, 336 

Red-water, 278 

Refrigerants, 25 

Regimen, 20 

Remedies for inflammation, 
21 

Renal calculus, 305 

Resolution, 8 

Resolvents, 25 

Respiratory organs, diseases 
of, 164 

Retained after-birth, 322 

Retinitis, 335 

Rheumatism, 157, 186 

Rheumatism of the heart, 204, 
206 

Ribs, fractures of, 185, 415 



Rickets, 393 

Rinderpest, 89 

Ring-bones, 436 

Ringworm, 366 

Ringworm, honey-comb, 367 

Ripe grain, effects of, 236 

Roaring, 175 

Rot, 288 

Roup, 174 

Rupture, 256 

Rupture of the heart, 207 

Russian Cattle Plague, 89 

Saccharine urine, 276 

Saccular gullet, 232 

Sacrum, fracture of, 414 

St. Guy's dance, 331 

St. Vitus' dance, 331 

Salivary calculi, 227 

Salivary fistula, 227 

Salivation, 226 

Sallenders, 364 

Sand-crack, 470 

Sand-like deposit in the blad- 
der, 308 

Sarcoptes, 369 

Sarcoptes equi, 370 

Scab, 369 

Scabies, 369 

Scald-head, 367 

Scalds, 383 

Scaly skin affections, 364 

Scarlatina, 161 

Scirrhus, 485 

Scouring, 252 

Scratches, 362, 364 

Scrofulous disease of bones, 
392 

Scrotum, dropsy of, 311 



Index. 



515 



Seedy toe, 480 


Skin disease from buckwheat, 


Sensation, loss of, 350 


361 


Septicaemia, 127 


Skin disease from honey-dew, 


Septic infection, 127 


361 


Serous Exudations, 6 


Skin diseases, divisions of, 356 


Sesamoiditis, 432 


Skin diseases, general causes 


Sesamoiditis of the foot, 463 


and treatment, 357 


Sesamoiditis, pedal, 475 


Skin, inflammation of, 358 


Sesamoid ligaments, sprains 


Skin, nervous irritation of, 


of, 433 


365 


Shank-bone, fracture of, 429 


Skin, nodular swellings of, 364 


Shank-bone, inflammation of, 


Skin, parasitic diseases of, 366 


428 


Skin, scaly affection of, 364 


Sheath, swollen, 313 


Slavering, 226 


Sheath, tumors of, 311 


Sleepy staggers, 344 


Sheep and goats, lung-worms 


Slings, 398 


in, 195 


Slobbers, 226 


Sheep, carbuncular erysipelas 


Softening, 14 


in, 117 


Sole, bruises of, 473 


Sheep-pox, 84 


Sole, wounds of, 475 


Sheep, tape-worm in, 150 


Soles, convex, 470 


Sheep-tick, 375 


Sore mouth, 217 


Shoeing, effects of, 457 


Sore shins, 428 


Shoeing, maxims for, 461 


Sore teats, 331 


Shot of grease, 213 


Sore-throat, 171 


Shoulder, abscess in, 416, 420 


Sore-throat, malignant, 117 


Shoulder-joint, disease of, 


Spasmodic colic, 246 


419 


Spasm of the neck of the blad- 


Shoulder lameness, 416 


der, 299 


Shoulder slip, 418 


Spavin, blood, 453, 454 


Shoulder sprain, 417 


Spavin, bog, 453 


Shoulder, tumors on, 416 


Spavin, bone, 452 


Siberian boil plague, 112 


Spavin, occult, 452 


Side bones, 466, 472 


Spaying, 315 


Simple ophthalmia, 333 


Speedy-cut, 333 


Sinuses of the head, matter 


Spermatic cord, strangulated, 


in, 168 


313 


Sitfasts, 366 


Spermatic cord, tumors on, 


Skin, congestion of, 358 


314 



516 



Index. 



Spinal cord, inflammation of, 

347 
Spinal meningitis, 277, 347 
Spleen, diseases of, 291 
Spleen, enlarged from liver 

disease, 275 
Splenic apoplexy, 119 
Splenic fever, 104, 119 
Splint-bones, fracture of, 429 
Splints, 427 
Sprains, 405 

Sprain above the knee, 423 
Sprains behind the fetlock, 

432 
Sprains behind the pastern, 

438 
Sprains below the fetlock, 433 
Sprain of tendon in front of 

the hock, 450 
Sprains of the back and loins, 

413 
Sprains of the back tendons, 

430 
Sprain of the flexor of the 

hock, 447 
Sprain of the hamstring, 448 
Sprain of the hip, 440 
Sprain of the muscles outside 

the shoulder, 418 
Sprain of the radial ligament, 

423 
Sprain of the shoulder, 417 
Sprain of the suspensory liga- 
ment, 431 
Sprain of the tendons behind 

the knee, 423 
Staggers, 341 
Staggers, parasitic, 144 
Staggers, sleepy, 344 



Stephanurus dentatus, 151 

Stiff-joint, 399 

Stifle, disease of, 446 

Stifle, fracture into the, 444 

Stocking, 362 

Stomach, foreign bodies in, 
244 

Stomach and bowels, catarrh 
of, 243 

Stomachs in oxen, inflamed, 
238 

Stomach staggers, 352 

Stomatitis, 218 ; aphthous, 219 

Stone in the bladder, 303 

Strangles, 95 

Strangulated cord, 313 

Stricture of the gullet, 232 

Stricture of the urethra, 302 

String-halt, 455 

Strongylus elongatus, 102 

Strongylus filaria, 191 

Strongylus micruris, 192 

Strongylus rufescens, 192 

Sturdy, 144 

Sulphate of copper as a disin- 
fectant, 82 ; of iron, 82 ; of 
zinc, 82 

Sulphur fumes as a disinfec- 
tant, 80 

Sun's rays as a cause of skin 
disease, 358 

Sunstroke, 354 

Superfluous limbs, 321 

Supernumerary teeth, 221 

Suppuration, 9 

Suppuration, bacteria of, 10 

Suppuration, diffuse, 11 

Suppuration, circumscribed, 
11 



Index. 



517 



Suppuration, tendency to, in 

different animals, 382 
Suspensory ligament, sprain 

of, 431 
Sweeny, 418 
Swelled legs, 362 
Swelling of the sheath, 313 
Swine, carbuncular erysipelas 

in, 117 
Swine, guttural tumors in, 

117 
Swine, intestinal fever of, 

103 
Swine, lard-worm of, 151 
Swine, malignant sore-throat 

in, 117 
Swine, measles in, 117, 148 
Swine-plague, 103 
Swine-pox, 86 
Syngamus trachealis, 192 
Synovitis, 399 
Syphon for injecting the nose, 

168 

Taenia ccenurus, 144 
Taenia echinococcus, 147 
Taenia expansa, 150 
Taenia mediocanellata, 150 
Taenia solium, 148 
Taeniae, 143 

Tail, amputation of, 415 
Tail, fracture and dislocation 

of, 415 
Tape-worm, embryo, 144 
Tape-worm from measley pork, 

149 
Tape-worms, 143 
Tape- worms, fertility of, 

144 

44 



Tape-worm of sheep and cat- 
tle, 150 
Tape-worms, transformations 

of, 144 
Tar as a disinfectant, 81 
Tartar on teeth, 225 
Taurocholic acid, poisoning 

by, 278 
Teat, closure by a membrane, 

330 
Teat, polypus in, 330 
Teats, scabs on, 331 
Teat, stricture of, 238 
Teat, thickening of its walls, 

330 
Teat-tube, 330 
Teats, warts on, 331 
Teeth, caries of, 223 
Teeth, disease of, 168 
Teeth, displaced, 222 
Teeth, overgrown, 222 
Teeth, supernumerary, 211 
Teeth, tartar on, 225 
Teeth, tumors of, 225 
Teething, fever from, 225 
Temperature of body, 17 
Temperature in fever, 18 
Tendinous sheaths, inflamed, 

402 
Tendons, calcification of, 406 
Tendons, shortening of, 406 
Tendons, thickening of, 406 
Terms, explanation of, 488 
Testicle, inflammation of, 

310 
Tetanus, 342 
Texan fever, 104 
Thecae, inflamed, 403 
Thigh-bone, fracture of, 443 



518 



Index. 



Thigh, long muscle of, dis- 
placed, 441 

Thorough-pin, bandage for, 
450 

Thorough-pin of the hock, 
450 

Thorough-pin of the knee, 
423 

Thrush, 219, 480 

Thumps, 201 

Tibia, fracture of, 446 

Tick of sheep, 375 

Ticks, 374 

Tinea decalvans, 368 

Tinea favosa, 367 

Tinea tonsurans, 366 

Tongue, cancer of, 220 

Tongue, cysts beneath the, 
220 

Tongue, inflamed, 219 

Tongue, laceration of, 220 

Tooth-like tumors under the 
ear, 410 

Tooth-rasp, 223 

Tooth-socket, inflamed, 225 

Tracheotomy, 96 

Treads on the coronet, 478 

" Trembles," 133 

Trembling, 349 

Trichiasis, 151, 332 

Trichina spiralis, 152 

Trichodectes, 376 

Trichophyton tonsurans, 367 

Trismus, 348 

Tubercle, 139 

Tubercle in bone, 392 

Tubercles, 364 

Tuberculosis, 139, 202 

Tuberculous foot-rot, 483 



Tumor of bone, 388 
Tumors in the mouth, 220 
Tumors in the nose, 170 
Tumors, malignant, 485 
Tumors of teeth, 225 
Tumors of the cornea, 334 
Tumors of the elbow, 420 
Tumors of the mamma, 331 
Tumors of the sheath, 311 
Tumors on the shoulder, 416 
Tumors on the spermatic cord, 

314 
Tumors, simple, 485 
Turn-sick, 144 
Tympanitic colic, 241 
Tympany of the rumen, 232 
Tympany of the stomach in 

horses, 240 
Typhoid fever, 186 
Typhoid fever in horses, 98 
Typhus, 115 
Tyroglyph, 371 

Udder, congestion of, 329 
Udder, inflammation of, 329 
Ulceration, 14 
Ulceration in joints, 399 
Ulceration of bone, 388, 391 
Ulceration of bone, symptoms 

of, 389 
Ulceration of the neck-bones, 

412 
Ulcers of the eye, 334 
Unripe seeds, their effects, 

352 
Upper jaw, fracture of, 409 
Urea in fever, 18 
Urethra, inflammation of, 301 
Urethral calculus, 307 



Index. 



519 



Urethra, stricture of, 302 
Urethritis, 301 
Urinary calculi, 303 
Urinary diseases, general 

causes of, 293 
Urinary diseases, general 

symptoms of, 293 
Urinary organs, diseases of, 

293 

Vagina, catarrh of, 323 

Vagina, eversion of, 324 

Vagina, polypus in, 319 

Valves of the heart, insuffi- 
ciency of, 207 

Varicose veins, 213 

Variola avis, 87 

Variola canina, 87 

Variola caprse, 86 

Variola equina, 83 

Variola ovina, 85 

Variola suilla, 86 

Variola vaccina, 84 

Veins, air in, 213 

Veins, dilated, 213 

Veins, diseases of, 211 

Veins, inflammation of, 212 

Veins, wounds of, 211 

Venereal disease of solipeds, 
137 

Verminous bronchitis, 193, 
195, 196 

Vertigo, 341 

Vesicles, 359 

Vetches, a cause of roaring, 
176 

Viscid milk, 328 

Voluntary motion, loss of, 
350 



Volvulus, 255 
Vomiting, 243 

Warbles, 374 

Warts, 366 

Warts on the lips, 220 

Wasting in fever, 18 

Wasting from ergotism, 156 

Wasting of the heart, 203 

Water-brain, 144 

Water in the abdomen in par- 
turition, 322 

Water in $he chest, 182, 
184 

Water in the head in parturi- 
tion, 321 

Water-stones, 311 

Watery blood, 162 

Weed, 213 

White scour, 239 

Wind-broken, 188 

Windgalls, 432 

Wind-sucking, 221 

Wolf-teeth, 221 

Womb, bleeding from, 322 

Womb, catarrh of, 323 

Womb, eversion of, 324 

Womb, indurated neck of, 
318 

Womb, inflammation of, 325 

Womb, twisting of the neck 
of, 318 . 

Wood-evil, 272 

Wood-tar as a disinfectant, 
81 

Wood-balls, 245 

Worms in the digestive canal, 
266 

Worms, treatment of, 273 



520 



Index. 



Wounds, 381 
Wounds, bruised, 382 
Wounds, healing of, in differ- 
ent animals, 381 
Wounds, irritated, 215 
Wounds, lacerated, 382 
Wounds of the chest, 185, 416 
Wounds, poisoned, 383 



Wounds, punctured, 382 
Wounds of the heart, 204 
Wounds of the sole, 475 
Wounds of veins, 211 
Wounds, putrefying, 215 
Wrong presentations, 319 

Yellows, 281 



THE END. 



THE 



LinSTG PLAGUE 

CATTLE, 

CONTAGIOUS PLEURO-PNETJMONIA, 



JAMES LAW, 

Professor of Veterinary Medicine, etc., in Co nell University. 



toitl) Jlltistratitftts. 



ITHACA : 
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 

1887. 



Copyright, 1S79, vs 
JAMES LAW. 



Trow's 

Printing and Bookbinding Compan*, 

201-213 East \2.th Street, 

NEW YORK. 



r 



THE LUNG PLAGUE OF CATTLE. 



THE BOVINE PNEUMONIC PLAGUE.— PLEUKO- 
PNEUMONIA CONTAGIOSA. 

Nomenclature. — Generally known in English veterinary 
literature as Pleuro-pneumonia, this affection has been 
consequently largely misapprehended by the medical 
mind. It is naturally assumed that the malady, like 
other inflammations of the organs within the chest, is 
caused by exposure, inclement weather, changes of cli- 
mate or season, imperfect ventilation, etc., etc. There is, 
however, no proof that such is the case, and hence it is 
impolitic to retain a name which is misleading to the ed- 
ucated mind, and conveys no definite conception to the 
uneducated. Other names that have been at different 
times employed are equally objectionable : Peripneumo- 
nia, Peripneumonia pecorum enzootica or epizootica, Peri- 
pneumonia exudativa enzootica or contagiosa, Peripneumonia 
pecorum epizootica typhosa, Pleuro-pneumonia interlobularis 
exudativa, Pneumonia catarrhalis gastrica asthenica, Pleu- 
ritis rheumatico-exudativa. If we add the term contagious 
(contagiosa) to any of these definitions we only remove 
the difficulty a short step, for the physician still con- 
cludes that the affection is due to local or general causes, 
and that if it arises in one animal under such circum- 
stances, it may in one million subject to the same condi- 
tions, that its general prevalence at any time or place 
1 



The Lung Plague of Cattle. 



may be altogether due to the environment ; and that the 
doctrine of contagion is either founded on insufficient 
data, or true only in a restricted sense and entirely sub- 
sidiary to the generally acting causes. But the malady 
as known to veterinarians of to-day is always and only 
the result of contagion or infection, therefore we should 
select a name better adapted to set forth this character 
without the risk of misleading. This we have in the 
Lung Plague of Cattle, the near counterpart of the Lungen- 
seuche by which it has been long known in Germany. 
The old term Pulmonary murrain is equally good. 

The German Lungenseuche is especially apposite, the 
real meaning being Lung-contagion, which conveys the 
idea of transmission by contagion only. 

Definition. — A specific contagious disease peculiar to 
cattle, and manifested by a long period of incubation (ten 
days to three months), by a slow, insidious onset, by a low 
type of fever, and by the occurrence of inflammation in 
the air-passages, lungs, and their coverings, with an ex- 
tensive exudation into lungs and pleurae. 

History. — As in the case of all genuine plagues, small- 
pox, cholera, rinderpest, aphthous fever, etc., we know 
nothing of the original source of the lung-fever contagium. 
We know the disease only as it is introduced into a 
country or herd by a diseased animal or some of its in- 
fecting products. In ancient as in modern times, in the 
Old World as in the New, the malady can ever be traced 
in connection with the aggregation of cattle in herds 
made up from different districts and countries. Aristotle, 
writing three hundred and fifty years before Christ, says . 
"The cattle lohich live in herds are subject to a malady 
during which the breathing becomes hot and frequent. 
The ears droop and they cannot eat. They die rapidly, 
and the lungs are found spoiled." Here the facts that 
cattle alone suffered, that large herds suffered most, that 
the lungs were the seat of the diseased changes, and that 



Prevalence in Holland and Britain. 3 

the mortality was high, all point toward the probable ex- 
istence of this plague at that remote epoch. Equally in- 
definite are the reports of the ancient Greek veterinari- 
ans, and still more so those of the Roman writers on 
bucolics. At a later date Valentini describes a fatal lung 
disease of cattle which all acknowledge to have reference 
to the Lung Plague, and from this time onward the rec- 
ords of the disease become more frequent and definite. 
The modern history of the malady may, however, be all 
summed up in this, that whenever the commissariat de- 
mands of a large army led to the aggregation of cattle 
from all quarters, and especially from the east of Europe, 
then this and other animal plagues have gained a wide 
extension. 

Into Holland the Lung Plague was imported in 1833 
from Prussia by a distiller, Vanderbosch in Gelderland. 
In 1835 it was conveyed thence to Utrecht, thence to 
South Holland, North Brabant, West Flanders, Drenthe, 
Groningen, Overyssel, and finally in 1842 to Friesland. 
Destruction of the sick, by order of the government, was 
resorted to, and Friesland was freed from the plague un- 
til 1845, when it was again introduced in cattle from 
Overyssel in connection with the active trafiic established 
by the demands for the British trade. Another effort 
was made to kill out the disease, but the trade had grown 
to great proportions, and as often as it was crushed in 
one district it re-appeared in a new locality. After 1847 
the attempt was abandoned, and the malady spread with 
increasing rapidity. In the last six months of 1847 there 
were but 16 stables infected ; in 1848 58 different out- 
breaks occurred. By 1863 between 5,000 and 6,000 of the 
14,000 cow-stables in Friesland had suffered from the 
disease, and the annual mortality had risen from 5.25 per 
thousand in 1850 to nearly 40 per thousand. 

From Holland it was imported into Cork, Ireland, ir 
1839 by Dutch cows sent by the British Consul at the 



The Lung Plague of Cattle. 



Hague to an Irish friend. In Ireland it met with the 
most favorable conditions for its propagation, the great 
mass of the young store cattle having been in the habit of 
changing hands and pastures several times a year, of 
passing on each occasion through public markets where 
they mingled with herds from all quarters, and of being 
transferred after every sale to common pastures where 
the cattle of different owners are turned out together at 
so much per head. (See Prof. Ferguson's Eeport to The 
Privy Council, 1878.) In two years the whole island was 
infected, and diseased stock were being exported to the 
adjacent island of Great Britain. The following year the 
Free Trade Act was passed, and immediately Great Brit- 
ain was deluged with a steady influx of infected cattle 
from Holland, Belgium and France on the one side, and 
from Ireland on the other. Since that period England 
has been ravaged continually, excepting only in those 
districts (the Highlands) which breed their own cattle 
and never admit strange stock. The yearly losses from 
this plague alone have been no less than $10,000,000 per 
annum. (Gamgee). 

From England the plague was carried back to the Con- 
tinent, infecting at different times the more northern 
countries of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Schleswig-Hol- 
stein, Oldenburg and Mecklenburg-Schwerin ; also to the 
more distant lands of Long Island in 1843 and 1850, to 
New Jersey in 1847, and to Australia in 1858. 

From Holland it was conveyed in the systems of in- 
fected cattle to the Cape of Good Hope in 1854, and to 
Massachusetts in 1859. 

The introduction of the disease into the more distant 
countries has been so fruitful in evil results that it de- 
mands to be noticed in greater detail. 

Into Brooklyn, Long Island, it was introduced in 1843 
in the system of a ship cow, purchased by Peter Dunn 
from the captain of an English vessel. From Dunn's 



Lung Plague in Massachusetts. 



herd it spread to others adjacent and speedily infected 
the whole west end of the island, as will be noticed later 
at greater length. 

Into Massachusetts the plague was introduced on the 
23d of July, 1859, in the bodies of four Dutch cows, im- 
ported by Winthrop W. Chenery, of Belmont, near Bos- 
ton. These cows were procured from Purmerend and the 
Beemster, and were kept in stables for several days at 
the port of Rotterdam — an infected city — before being 
put on board the vessel. They were shipped April 6th, 
passed forty-seven days at sea, and were ill during the 
last twenty days, one of the number having been unable 
to stand. On landing two were able to walk to the farm, 
while the other two had to be carried in wagons. The 
worst cow was killed May 31st, and the second died June 
2d. The third did well till June 20th, when she was severe- 
ly attacked and died in ten days. The fourth recovered. 
On August 20th another cow, imported in 1852, sickened 
and died in a few days, and others followed in rapid suc- 
cession. 

In the first week of September Mr. Chenery isolated 
his herd, and declined all offers to purchase, being now 
convinced that he was dealing with the Bovine Lung 
Plague of Europe. 

Unfortunately, on June 23d he had sold three calves to 
Curtis Stoddard, of North Brookfield, Worcester Co., one 
of which was noticed to be sick on the way to Curtis's 
farm. Several days later Leonard Stoddard (father of 
Curtis) took this calf to his farm to cure it, and kept it 
in his barn with forty cattle for four days, when he re- 
turned it to his son. It died August 20th. Curtis Stod- 
dard lost no more until November 1st, when he sold 
eleven young cattle to as many different purchasers, and 
wherever these went the disease was developed. In one 
case more than 200 cattle were infected by one of these 
Stoddard heifers. Of the nine cattle which he retained, 
seven were killed and found to be badly diseased. 



6 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

An ox of L. Stoddard's sickened two weeks after he had 
returned the diseased calf to his son, and soon died. 
Two weeks later a second was taken ill and died ; then a 
dozen in rapid succession. From this herd were infect- 
ed those of the following : Messrs. Needham, "Woodes, 
Olmsted, and Huntingdon. Olmsted sold a yoke of oxen 
to Doane, who lent them to assist with twenty-three yoke 
of cattle in removing a building in North Brookfield. 
These belonged to eleven different herds, all of which 
were thereby infected. 

This will suffice to show how the disease was dissem- 
inated. In the next four years it was found in herds in 
the following towns : Milton, Dorchester, Quincy, Lin- 
coln, Ashby, Boxborough, Lexington, Waltham, Hing- 
ham, E. Marshfield, Sherborn, Dover, Holliston, Ashland, 
Natick, Northborough, Chelmsford, Dedham, and Na- 
hant, and on Deer Island. 

By the spring of 1860 the State had been roused to its 
danger, and in April an Act was passed " to provide for 
the extirpation of the disease called pleuro-pneumonia 
among cattle," which empowered the Commissioners to 
kill all cattle in herds where the disease was known or 
suspected to exist. With various intervals this and suc- 
ceeding commissions were kept in existence for six years, 
and the last remnants of the plague having been extin- 
guished, the last resigned definitely in 1866. The rec- 
ords show that 1164 cattle were slaughtered by orders of 
the Commissioners, in addition to others disposed of by 
the Selectmen of the different towns in 1863, when the 
commission was temporarily suspended. The money 
disbursed by the State was $67,511.07, and by the in- 
fected towns $10,000, making a grand total of $77,511.07, 
in addition to all losses by deaths from the plague, de- 
preciation, etc. Dr. E. F. Thayer, Newtown, was the 
professional Commissioner who brought this work to a 
successful end. 



Lung Plague in the Atlantic States. 1 

An importation into New Jersey in 1847 is recorded, 
to check which the importer, Mr. Richardson, is said tc 
to have slaughtered his whole herd, valued at $10,000, 
for the good of the State. Unfortunately all New Jersey 
men were not so public-spirited, and subsequent impor- 
tations from New York and mayhap also from Europe 
have since spread this pestilence widely over the State. 

From New Jersey it spread to Pennsylvania and Dela- 
ware, and thence to Maryland, District of Columbia and 
Virginia, in all of which it still prevails 

Of the progress of the disease southward from New 
York the records are somewhat imperfect, yet sufficient 
to show a steady advance. Robert Jennings records its 
existence in Camden and Gloucester Counties, N. J., in 
1859, and its introduction into Philadelphia in 1860. It 
spread to " The Neck " in the southern part of the coun- 
ty, killing from 30 to 50 per cent, of infected herds, and 
spread in 1861 into Delaware, and into Burlington Co., 
N. J. In 1868 Mr. Martin Goldsborough assured Pro- 
fessor Gamgee of the extensive prevalence of the disease 
in Maryland, infection having been introduced by cattle 
from the Philadelphia market. The professor personally 
traced the disease in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Mary- 
land, District of Columbia, and Virginia, and makes the 
following assertions : 

" That the Lung Plague in cattle exists on Long Isl- 
and, where it has prevailed for many years; that it is 
not uncommon in New Jersey ; has at various times ex- 
isted in New York State ; continues to be very prevalen 
in several counties of Pennsylvania, especially in Dela 
ware and Bucks ; has injured the farmers of Maryland, 
the dairymen around Washington, D. C, and has pene- 
trated into Virginia." 

He adds a table compiled by Mr. G. Reid, Ingleside 
Farm, Washington, D. C, and showing that in an average 
of 471 cows kept in Washington and vicinity, 198 had 



8 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

died of Lung Plague since its introduction, 39 head per- 
ished in 1868, and 16 in 1869 up to the date of report. 

More recently illustrations of the existence of the dis- 
ease in these States have been frequent, and among com- 
paratively recent cases the author has been consulted 
concerning a high class Jersey herd near Burlington, 
N. J., in 1877, and a herd of imported Ayrshires in Staten 
Island, later in the same year. 

In 1878 the town of Clinton, N. J., was invaded, the 
infection coming through a cow that had staid for some 
days in New York city. This was alleged to be an Ohio 
cow, but had staid long enough in New York to have 
contracted the affection. 

In 1847 Ayrshire cattle taken from Scotland to Den- 
mark conveyed the plague into that country. The in- 
fected cattle were, however, at once placed in quarantine 
and the spread of the malady was prevented. Mr. R. 
Fenger, whom I met at Edinburgh in 1862, stated that 
there had been but three dairies attacked, all by reason 
of infected cattle imported, and that all had been crush- 
ed out so that for three years the kingdom had been free 
from the disease. 

Schleswig-Holstein has repeatedly imported the plague 
by the introduction of foreign cattle, but has invariably 
stamped it out by quarantining the infected places and 
destroying the sick cattle. One of these importations 
consisted of Ayrshire cattle brought from Scotland in 1859. 
A still more serious invasion took place on the occasion 
of the late Prusso-Danish war ; the commissariat parks 
of the invading army having been supplied from infected 
districts carried the plague wherever they went, but true 
to her record, on the return of peace, the province went 
vigorously to work, drove out the pestilence, and foi 
years past has been free from the infection. 

In 1860 Norway was infected by a cargo of Ayrshire 
cattle, imported for the Agricultural College at Aas. The 



Lung Plague in South Africa. 



disease broke out three months after their arrival, and 
was limited by the slaughter of all native cattle with 
which the Ayrshires had come in contact, and by the 
strict quarantine of the Ayrshires themselves. Since 
that time Norway has remained sound. 

Sweden imported the Lung Plague from England, by 
cattle imported in 1847. By stringent measures of sup- 
pression it was speedily exterminated, and this impunity 
has since been maintained. 

Oldenburg derived the disease from England through 
Ayrshires imported for breeding purposes in 1858. This, 
together with other invasions, she has crushed out by the 
remorseless use of the pole-ax. The same remark applies 
to Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Switzerland. 

For the history of the introduction of this plague into 
Australia see "Infection through Pastures." Its convey- 
ance to the Cape of Good Hope was described by Rev. 
Daniel Lindley, missionary to South Africa, before the 
Massachusetts Legislative Committee, in 1860. 

The importation took place in 1854 in the body of a 
bull brought from Holland by a gentlemen of Cape Town 
with the view of improving his stock. The bull was 
about two months on the passage, and had been six 
weeks at the Cape before any sign of sickness appeared 
in him. He died, but conveyed the disease to a great 
number of cattle, and it had spread very widely before 
the colonists suspected its true nature. The Cape is a 
great unwooded and unfenced pasture-land, dotted with 
thickets and jungles, and over this the cattle, the source 
of the colonist's wealth, are scattered in herds of from 
one to five hundred head on an average. Wherever lions 
and tigers have been exterminated these cattle are allowed 
to roam day and night where they please ; they accord- 
ingly wander long distances, and herd mingles with herd 
from one side of the country to the other. All the prod- 
uce of the country is brought from the interior to tho 
1* 



10 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

seaports in ox-wagons, and all imported goods are carried 
inland in the same way. This describes a country ol 
2,400 miles across destitute of railroads and navigable 
rivers, and which is being constantly traversed from side 
to side by hundreds of ox- wagons and thousands of work- 
ing oxen. The disease once introduced and favored by 
such conditions speedily spread in every direction and 
bade defiance to any attempt at suppression. 

Mr. Lindley related various instances from his own 
knowledge of the disease having been conveyed by ox- 
teams two and three hundred miles, and of its wide ex- 
tension in the new localities, and contrasted them with ex- 
amples in which chief and people, warned of the ap- 
proach of the pestilence, resorted to spear and shield to 
exclude all traveling teams and cattle, and thereby saved 
their own herds, though only a half a mile off the victims 
of the plague lay unburied in great numbers. 

Causes of the Disease. — The known cause of the disease 
may be summed up in one word, contagion. All sorts of 
causes have been invoked to account for the spontaneous 
appearance of the disease ; but the theorists should first 
assure themselves that they have seen a spontaneous case 
before attempting to account for it. Delafond attributed 
it to : 1. Impurity of the air in stables ; 2. Excessively rich 
food; 3. Secretion of milk to excess; 4. Chills of the 
skin in inclement weather, and the breathing of cold air 
when suddenly taken from a warm stable ; 5. Drinking 
iced water; 6. "Waters charged with corrupting organic 
matter ; 7. Overwork in summer ; 8. Hereditary predis- 
position; 9. Some unknown atmospheric and telluric 
conditions usually referred to as epidemic influences. The 
answer to one and all these allegations is this : that these 
have all prevailed to an equal extent at different times in 
different parts of the world, and do so still ; but no one 
of them, nor all put together, can be shown to have pro- 
duced this disease in any country from which cattle, and 



Alleged Causes. 11 



cattle products, from an infected country have been 
rigidly excluded. In many cases, indeed, we find these 
alleged causes operating with the greatest intensity in 
isolated countries where this malady has never been 
known. The cow-stables of England were far worse 
ventilated at the beginning of the nineteenth century 
than they are to-day ; yet .this disease was unknown 
in Great Britain until Dutch and Dutch-infected Irish 
cattle were imported in 1842. None feed with a 
more lavish hand than dairymen, yet the dairy coun- 
tries of Denmark and Schleswig have only known this 
disease as the result of importation, and have long 
since freed themselves from the pest. The Channel Isl- 
ands, which produce the richest milkers in the world, 
have never known this disease, but only because all land- 
ing of foreign cattle is criminal. Inclemency, variability 
and extremes of the weather are above all characteristic 
of the Highlands of Scotland, yet the Highlands, which 
breed their own stock and suffer a large egress but no 
ingress of cattle, have never been ravaged by this affec- 
tion, whereas in the mild and equable Lowlands it has 
decimated the herds yearly. The immunity of countries 
with the rigorous climates of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, 
Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and 
above all our Western plains, where the cattle are often 
wintered without shelter, is even more striking in this re- 
spect. Iced water and corrupt malarious water are all 
that the cattle can obtain in many of our Western States, 
but there is no evidence that this disease has ever existed 
anywhere in the West, and no danger whatever attaches 
to our Western cattle until they have entered infected 
localities in the East. Similar remarks may be made 
of overwork and hereditary predisposition, as also of epi- 
demic and telluric conditions, which are but cloaks for 
ignorance, and a persistent adherence to an unfounded 
idea. 



12 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

The same is true of distillery feeding, of low, damp 
marshy pastures, of fodder spoiled by wet, or decompo- 
sition, or covered by cryptogams, of extreme changes ol 
climate, etc., etc. All these are brought into play in 
many of our Western States ; no climatic change could 
be more severe than that to which our Texan cattle are 
subjected in being transferred to Nebraska or Minnesota, 
yet not all of these conditions combined have ever gene- 
rated de novo the germ of the Bovine Lung Plague. Had 
it done so in a single instance on our unfenced cattle 
ranges we must inevitably have passed through the same 
experience as Australia and the Cape of Good Hope, each 
infected by a single sick animal and each speedily rav- 
aged throughout by this most insidious and unrelenting 
pestilence. 

The incontrovertible fact that we can point to no coun- 
try (out of the centre of the eastern continent) in which 
this disease prevails, into which we cannot also trace its 
introduction in the system of an infected animal, or some 
of its products, must put to silence all claims to its spon- 
taneous development in those countries. This grand truth, 
that the disease is only known to-day as the result of 
contagion, dawned upon some of the best medical minds 
of the last century. The renowned physiologist, Haller, 
writing in his native Switzerland, the mountains of which 
had been maligned as the source and native home of the 
plague, claimed that, on the contrary, it was utterly un- 
known save as the result of importation. The last quarter 
of a century has sustained Haller's representation of a 
century before ; the disease has been exterminated and 
the herds of the Alpine and Jura mountains and valleys 
freed from the pest. A list of other states which have 
expelled this disease from their borders deserves to be 
mentioned in this connection ; these are Norway, Sweden, 
Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein, Oldenburg, and Mecklen- 
burg-Schwerin in the Old World, and Massachusetts and 



The One Known Cause. 13 



Connecticut in the New. To the same purpose speaks 
the immunity of Spain and Portugal, guarded by their 
peninsular position, the bold walls of the Pyrenees, and 
the entire absence of cattle-traffic; of parts of -Brittany 
and Normandy, of the Channel Islands, and of the High- 
lands of Scotland, that breed their own stock and nevei 
import. To the same end speaks also the absence of the 
disease in our Western States, and in Massachusetts 
since 1864, when she crushed out the imported plague. 
The disease, then, is only known as a contagious malady, 
and the unhygienic conditions above referred to only 
favor its propagation so far as they favor the preservation 
of the morbid germ already in existence, or weaken the 
animal vitality and power of resistance and lay the sub- 
ject more open to disease. Faulty surroundings will 
greatly favor the dissemination of the disease, but have 
never been known to generate it. The primary origin of 
its germ is as great a mystery as in the case of small-pox 
or plague. 

But for some readers this is not enough; it may be 
conceded that the true Lung Plague of European cattle 
is only propagated by contagion, and that in the absence 
of importations of sick cattle and their products no coun- 
try need fear an invasion of this disease, and yet doubts 
and objections of all kinds are raised ; 1. Is the present 
lung disease of cattle in certain of our Eastern States the 
genuine Lung Plague of Europe ? 2. Conceding that it 
is the same disease as respects its origin, has it not lost 
much or all of its virulence in being transplanted to the 
New World? 3. Allowing that it is at once the Lung 
Plague of Europe and that its virulence is preserved on 
the American Continent, is it not the case that its infec- 
tion can only be propagated by the direct contact of the 
sick with the healthy cattle, while the transmission of the 
virus through any intervening medium renders it inope- 
rative ? 
2 



14 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

1. Was the New York disease imported ? 

(a) From different old residents (including Wm. Ged- 
des, of Brooklyn, and Hugh. T. Meakim, of Flushing) 
who were in the milk business in Brooklyn at the time of 
the importation the following facts have been obtained. 

The first diseased cow was introduced from England 
on the ship " "Washington," in 1843, and was purchased 
by Peter Dunn, a milkman, who kept his cows in a sta- 
ble near South Ferry. This cow soon sickened and died, 
and infected the rest of his cows. From this the disease 
was speedily conveyed into the great distillery stables of 
John D. Minton, at the foot of Fourth street, and into the 
Skillman street stables, Brooklyn, through which my in- 
formant, Fletcher, showed the Massachusetts Commis- 
sion in 1862. In this long period of nineteen years the 
plague had prevailed uninterruptedly in these Skillman 
street stables, and the Commission reported that they 
"found some sick with the acute disease," and having 
killed and examined one in the last stages of the affec- 
tion, stated that it " showed a typical case of the same 
malady which existed in Massachusetts." 

As dealers found it profitable to purchase cheap cows 
out of infected herds and retail them at a sound price, 
the malady was soon spread over Brooklyn and New 
York city. One or two cases will enable us to trace one 
unbroken chain of infection down to the present time. 

(b) In 1849 Wm. Meakim, of Bushwick, L. I., kept a 
large dairy, and employed a man with a yoke of oxen in 
drawing grains from the New York and Brooklyn distill- 
eries. A milkman on the way who had lung fever in his 
heard, persuaded the man to use his oxen in drawing a 
dead cow out of his stable. Soon after the oxen sicken- 
ed and died ; and the disease extending to his dairy cows, 
Mr. Meakim lost forty head in the short space of three 
months. The stables having thus become infected, Mr. 
M. continued to lose from six to ten cows yearly for the 



Never Spontaneous in America. 15 



succeeding twenty years, or as long as he kept in the 
milk business. This, which is but one instance out of 
a hundred, covers fifteen years of the plague in the Skill- 
man stables and brings the record down to 1869. It will 
be observed that this was the first occurrence of any such 
sickness in Mr. Meakim's herd ; it commenced, not in the 
cows cooped up in hot buildings and heavily fed on swill, 
but in the oxen that were almost constantly in the open 
air, but which had been brought in contact with a dead 
and infected cow ; the infection of the cows followed, and 
for twenty long years no fresh cow could be brought into 
these stables with impunity. 

(c) Dr. Bathgate, Fordham Avenue and 171st si, New 
York, informs us that twenty years ago (1859) his father 
kept a herd of Jerseys, which contracted the disease by 
exposure to sick animals, and that all efforts to get rid of 
it failed, until when, several years later, the barns were 
burned down. The devouring element secured what the 
skill of the owner had failed to accomplish — a thorough 
disinfection. 

For some time so prevalent was the disease that Dr. 
Bathgate did not dare to turn his cattle out in the fields 
lest they should be infected by contact with cattle ovei 
the fence. Since the period of the infection of his own 
herd, he knows that the pestilence has been constantly 
prevalent in many of the dairies around him. This 
bridges over the time from the Skillman street and Meak 
im cases down to the present day. 

(d) Twenty years ago (1859) Mr. Benjamin Albertson, 
Queens, Queens Co., L. I., purchased four cows out of 
Herkimer County herd which had got belated and had 
been kept over night in a stable in Sixth street, New 
York, where the cattle market then was. These cows 
sickened with lung fever, and infected his large herd of 
100 head, 25 of which died in rapid succession, and 19 
more slowly. He was left with but 60 head out of a herd, 



1 6 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

after purchase of the four, of 104 animals, and honorably 
declined to sell the survivors at high prices to his unsus- 
pecting neighbors, but sold a number at half price to a 
Brooklyn milkman, who already had the disease in his 
herd, and knew all the circumstances. 

(o) Twelve years ago (1867) Lawrence Ansert, Broad- 
way and Bidge st., Astoria, bought of a dealer two cows 
which soon after sickened and died, and infected the re- 
mainder of his herd of 18. Eight of them died of the 
disease, and he fattened and killed the remaining ten, 
and began anew with fresh premises and stock. He has 
lost none since. 

(/) The next case, like the last, affords a most instruct- 
ive contrast to the first two, as showing how the disease 
may be permanently eradicated by proper seclusion. In 
1872, Frank Devine, of Old Farm House Hotel, West 
Chester, purchased from a dealer a cow which soon sick- 
ened and died. The disease extended to the rest of his 
herd, and in seven months he lost thirty-six cows He 
appreciated the danger of contagion, and began again 
with new stock, keeping them rigidly apart from the in- 
fected beasts and premises, and from that time onward 
avoided all dealers and bred his own stock, with the 
happy result that in the last six years he has not had a 
single case of lung fever in his herd.. 

These are but examples of what has been happening 
all over the infected district for the last thirty-six 
3'ears. 

2. Has the Affection become less virulent in America ? 

The above mentioned cases may be referred to as a 
partial answer to this question, yet it will be more satis- 
factory to adduce some more recent cases as showing that 
the lapse of time has not modified the virulence of the 
contagion. 

(a) The Blissville distillery stables are alleged to have 
contained 800 to 900 cattle when visited late in January, 



Virulence in America. 17 



1879, by Professors Liantard and McEachran, whereas, 
on the occasion of my first visit, February 10th, there 
were only between 600 and 700, and up to the time they 
were quarantined, some days later, a large number had 
been culled out and slaughtered in anticipation of State 
interference. Of those that remained 64 were found so 
badly diseased that they were killed and sent to the offal 
dock, while from 100 to 150 showing slight symptoms, 
were sold for beef. Here we have one-tenth of a large 
herd severely attacked, and if we add those that were 
picked out by the owners in anticipation of quarantine, 
and the infected animals disposed of for beef, there is 
considerably over a third of the whole that were under 
the influence of the disease. 

(6) In the course of last year (1878), William Post, 
Old Westbury, Queens Co., L. I., bought a cow out of a 
passing herd that had been brought by Levy, a dealer, 
from Brooklyn stables. She infected his whole herd and 
his brother's to such an extent that they had to slaughter 
both herds, and, after a time, begin anew with fresh stock. 
From that time, as before, they have kept sound. 

(c) Mrs. Murphy, Brooklyn, last year bought a cow 
from McCabe, a New York dealer, which infected all of 
her herd, so that she had to slaughter the whole, and has 
given up the milk business. 

(d) In January, 1879, Mr. Judson, "Watertown, Conn, 
(and Gramercy Park Hotel, New York), bought two cows 
of Hecht, a New York dealer. They took ill soon after, 
and infected his original herd of ten. All were placed in 
quarantine by the Connecticut authorities, but were 
smuggled off by Hecht (who had purchased them at a 
ridiculously low figure), and shipped to New York, where 
they were slaughtered by order of the authorities. This 
is a case of the introduction of disease into a hitherto 
sound locality and State, and has therefore a special sig- 
nificance 



18 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

(e) Mrs. Kelly, Hazleton, Jamaica, L. I., bought a ccw 
from a Williamsburgh dealer named Brown, in the latter 
part of 1878. This cow sickened and died, and fatally 
infected the remaining three cows of her herd, so that 
she is now without any, and has resigned the milk busi- 
ness. 

(/) Mr. Wheelock, Eoslyn, L. I., late in 1878 bought 
two cows from a New York dealer. They sickened soon 
after, infected the rest of his herd, and six were lost be- 
fore the plague could be stayed. 

(g) Mr. Kenyon, Eoslyn, was so satisfied it was not the 
lung fever that he purchased two of Mr. W.'s cows. One 
of these sickened and died, and infected several others 
of his herd, one of which had to be destroyed by order of 
the State authorities. 

(h) Mr. Gilbert Miller, Cantito, Westchester Co., in 
July, 1878, took in a Jersey cow sent from Motthaven as 
a present to his son-in-law. Three months later his herd 
was generally infected, and the Jersey cow and two 
others died. 

(i) The herd of M.'s sister-in-law, Mrs. Bobertson, 
which was kept across the street, sickened in October, 
and, up to the time of my visit, early in March, five out 
of twelve had died. 

(j ) Mr. Collins, of 50th street, New York, had a Jersey 
cow which suffered, in August, 1878, from some disease 
of the lungs that was denied to be the lung fever by the 
veterinarian who attended her. On September 20th her 
calf was sent to Solomon Mead, Greenwich, Conn., who 
had agreed to keep it two years. The calf died two 
weeks after arrival, and infected ten of his herd, five of 
which had died, and five were recovering at the period of 
my visit (March 21). The herd at that time numbered 
thirteen. 

(k) Mr. Griffin, Greenwich, Conn., occupied a farm 
alongside Mr. Mead's, and had his herd infected hy a 



Virulence in America. IS 

cow winch broke out of Mead's herd and got, for a very 
short time, into his (Griffin's). At the time of my visit 
Mr. G. had lost one, and had two in course of apparent 
recovery. As he was just over the Connecticut line, and 
out of the jurisdiction of New York, the sick had to be 
left, and the result has been that a number of his remain- 
ing herd of twenty-six have been infected and have died 
since. 

(I) Mr. Carr, 146th street, New York, had a cow sent 
on trial, last February, by Geissmann, a Yorkville dealer. 
She stood but one night in his stables ; was removed 
next day because she looked bad, and another cow sent 
in her place. Three out of the five remaining cows con- 
tracted the lung fever, and, when slaughtered by the 
State authorities, May 12th, showed most extensive dis- 
ease of the lungs. Since that time the whole herd has 
been slaughtered. 

(to) Mr. Tone, 114th street, New York, purchased a 
cow of Kramer, a New York dealer, early in October, 
1878. She took ill and finally died in February, 1879. 
At the time of our visit, May 14th, two other of his cows 
"were suffering from the lung plague in a chronic form, 
and their destruction had to be ordered for the protec- 
tion of the herd. 

(n) About January 1st, 1879, Isaac Billard, dealer, of 
Cutchogue, L. I., took a drove of 112 calves and year- 
lings from the infected sheep-house, 60th street, New York 
city, to which we have traced a number of outbreaks. He 
sent them by cars to Bridgehampton, and sold them to 
farmers in the towns of Southampton and Easthampton. 
In April a floating rumor of disease in these towns 
reached us ; but, on inquiry, its correctness was denied, 
and it was only later that definite information could be 
obtained. May 6th to 8th I visited these towns, in com- 
pany with another member of the Veterinary Staff, and 
condemned and ordered to be slaughtered 16 head out 



20 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

of 6 herds into which calves of the Billard drove had 
been taken. Taking the first herd visited as an illustra- 
tive case : John E. White, of Sagg, bought of Billard 
one bull calf, which sickened soon after, but apparently 
recovered, or, rather, as is too often the case, the disease 
subsided into a chronic form. This strange calf infected 
13 more of his herd, 5 of which had died before our ar- 
rival, while 9, including the bull calf, were destroyed and 
paid for by the State. In this case 6 of the condemned 
animals were supposed by their owner and his neighbors 
to be in good health, and it was only when they had been 
destroyed, and the extensive diseased changes in the 
lungs had been shown, that they became convinced that 
a serious blunder had not been committed. This is an 
every-day experience with us, and illustrates how the 
disease is spread by cattle which an ordinary observer 
would consider to be perfectly sound. 

Since that date more of Mr. White's herd have con- 
tracted the disease, and he is now left with but 13 out of 
his original stock of 30 cattle. 

Outbreaks took place in no less than ten different herds 
into which calves from the same drove were taken, and 
but for the energetic measures adopted in stamping out 
the disease, the losses in Suffolk County must have prov- 
ed most extensive. 

Mrs. Erath, 73d street, New York, bought a cow from 
Seaver, a dealer, who then kept his cows in the infected 
sheep-house, 60th street. This cow sickened on Febru- 
ary 15th, and notwithstanding active suppressive meas- 
ures, five out of her remaining herd of nine were lost be« 
fore the plague was stayed. 

Patrick McCabe, 72d street, New York, had five cows 
in 1871. He bought a fresh cow of a dealer named Mc- 
Donald, which sickened six weeks later, and infected his 
cows, all of which perished. He bought four new cows, 
but he lost the whole in two months. Then lie got a 



Virulence in America. 21 

fresh stable and new cows, which have kept sound until 
the present year. One fresh cow, bought this year, suf- 
fered, but was carefully kept apart until disposed of by 
the State inspectors. 

Joseph Schwab, 149th street and Southern Boulevard, 
seven years ago, bought of a dealer a cow said to have 
come from New Rochelle. She sickened and infected his 
herd, of which he lost twenty-three in a few months. 
Seven of the herd recovered. A year later he again be- 
gan to buy, but only from sound herds, and since that 
time has escaped, until recently when an infected calf 
was taken in from a dealer. 

Udell Cohen, 14th street, New York, kept 14 cows, and 
in March, 1879, bought 3 of Jacob Strauss, a dealer. 
One of them was sick from the first, but after a few 
weeks improved. Then two others sickened and died. 
In June 5 others sickened and the whole were sold to a 
butcher. Cohen moved to New Jersey and started anew. 

Cases like these ought to convince all that this disease 
is eminently and most dangerously contagious. No one 
who has studied the plague in Europe can truthfully 
claim that it is less infectious here than in the old world. 
What misleads many is, that during the cooler season 
many of the cases assume a subacute type, and others 
subside into a chronic form with a mass of infecting 
material (dead lung) encysted in the chest, but unat- 
tended by acute symptoms. But this feature of the dis- 
ease renders it incomparably more insidious and danger- 
ous than in countries where the symptoms are so much 
more severe, that even the owners are roused at once to 
measures of prevention. In moderating the violence of 
its action, the disease does not part with its infecting 
qualities, but only diffuses them the more subtilely in 
proportion as its true nature is liable to be overlooked. 
A main reason why unobservant people fail at first sight 
to see that the lung fever is contagious is, that the seeds 
2* 



22 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

of the disease lie so long dormant in the system. A 
beast purchased in October passes a bad winter, and dies 
in February, after haying infected several others. She 
lias had a long period of incubation, and when the disease 
supervenes actively, she has passed through a chronic 
form of illness, so that when others sicken people fail 
to connect the new cases with the infected purchase. 
Then, again, in an ordinary herd of 10 or 20 head, the 
deaths do not follow in rapid succession, but at intervals 
of a fortnight, a month, or even more, and those unac- 
quainted with the nature of the disease suppose that it 
cannot be infectious, or all would be prostrated at once. 
Pertinent to this point are the following remarks ex- 
tracted from a letter of the author which appeared in the 
New York Tribune, March 12th, 1879 : 

" THE DISEASE NEVER ARISES EST THIS COUNTRY BUT AS THE 
RESULT OE CONTAGION. 

" That this malady is contagious is shown every day 
in the course of our work. Wherever we find it existing 
in a herd we obtain a history of a recent purchase, or of 
some other form of exposure by which the herd has 
been infected. To give illustrations would be to record 
the whole history of our course in stamping it out so 
far. But this is not enough. The disease is not only 
contagious, but in this country it is only propagated by 
contagion. Throughout the immemorial ages of this, 
the oldest of continents, the herds of buffalos roaming 
over its plains never contracted this affection. Yet buf- 
falos are susceptible to this disease, as well as our domes- 
ticated cattle. And if the buffalos on the unfenced plains 
had once developed the malady it would have remained 
as a permanent plague, as it has throughout all historic 
periods in the open steppes of Eastern Europe and Asia, 
since 1854 in Southern Africa, and since 1859 in the wide 
stock ranges of Australia. During the long period that 
has elapsed since the colonization of America the cattle 
have been subjected to all the conditions of life that have 
beset them since ; but until 1843, when an infected cow 



Contagion the One Known Cause. 23 

was imported into Brooklyn, the malady was unknown 
Since that date it has never at any time been absent from 
Brooklyn and Long Island. 

"On the contrary, Massachusetts, which imported this 
animal plague in 1859, set herself vigorously to the work 
of exterminating it. In the next five years she killed and 
paid for over 1,000 cattle, but in so doing she killed the 
contagion, and since 1865 has not known this disease. 
Cattle have lived in innumerable herds in the Western 
States, subjected to all possible privations and to the 
greatest trials in the way of travel, crowding, filth and 
starvation, but on no occasion has this lung plague been 
developed, and to-day I believe the cattle of those States 
are as sound as are the buffalos of the plains. In Europe 
this plague always extends on the occasion of any great 
war, and devastates the countries through which the 
armies pass, but only because the commissariat parks are 
supplied from infected districts. During the late Ameri- 
can war our commissariat herds were subjected to as 
great privations, with the additional drawback of the 
absence of the smooth-paved roads of the Old World, 
but the plague never broke out in those herds nor rav- 
aged the States where the armies were operating. The 
explanation is that the cattle supplies were drawn from 
uninfected regions, and in the absence of the specific 
imported disease-germ no abuse was capable of produc- 
ing it in America. The swill-milk stables of the West 
are as much crowded, as filthy and as ill- ventilated as 
those of New York and New Jersey. But the swill- 
stables of the West never produce this disease, while 
those of the seaboard into which the germ has been in- 
troduced are ravaged to a ruinous extent. If more proof 
is wanted of the purely contagious nature of the malady, 
it is to be found in the entire absence of the plague from 
the Highlands of Scotland, the Channel Islands, Brit- 
tany, much of Normandy, Spain, Portugal, Norway and 
Sweden. These places breed their own stock and rarely 
or never import strange cattle, therefore this poison ex- 
otic to their soil has never gained a foothold. Norway 
and Sweden have, indeed, imported the plague, but 
speedily expelled it by the only effectual method of ex- 
terminating the poison. The same is true of a numbei 



24 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

of other European nations, as well as Massachusetts and 
Connecticut. The remark is as true to-day of Western 
Europe and America as it was a century ago when made 
by the immortal Haller of his own native Switzerland, 
that the disease never appears but as tJie result of the intro- 
duction into a country or district of an animal from an in- 
fected place." 

Can the Bovine Lung Plague be Teansmitted by 
Mediate Contagion? 

This question will be best answered by adducing a few 
instances of the infection of animals otherwise than by 
immediate contact. These will be arranged under dif- 
ferent headings according to the channel through which 
the contagion was conveyed. 

A. Contagion through the Atmosphere. — Some years ago, 
the hypothesis was advanced in England that this 
disease could not be conveyed from animal to animal 
by mediate contagion, but that, in order to its transmis- 
sion, the sick animal must be brought into direct con- 
tact with the healthy. It is difficult to see how such 
an absolute claim can be advanced in the face of the 
every-day observation that, when a sick animal is intro- 
duced into one end of a stable, the plague often skips 
many intervening ones to strike down a beast near the 
farthest end of the building. In such a case the air is 
the medium through which the virus is carried, and the 
contagion is unquestionably mediate. 

The experiments conducted at the Brown Institution, 
in September, 1876, March, 1877, and August, 1878, in 
which healthy cattle were exposed to the emanations from 
diseased lungs without any ill result, are quoted as dis- 
proving contagion through the air. But one or several 
failures to convey a disease is no proof that the disease in 
question is not contagious. I might quote the example 
of the enthusiastic non-contagionists who clothed them 
selves with the linen fresh from the bodies of cholerj 



Contagion Through Attendants. 25 



patients, lay with them in the same beds, and even drank 
their blood with impunity. The results did not prove 
that cholera was non-virulent, but only that they did not 
furnish the conditions necessary to induce contagion. 
We now know that if they had experimented with the 
bowel dejections of cholera patients cholera would have 
been produced, in all susceptible subjects, on given days 
after their passage. 

It seems highly probable that a flaw no less serious 
entered into the experiments conducted at the Brown In- 
stitution. If the emanations from the lungs of a sick 
animal can infect a healthy cow at the farther end of a 
long stable, there seems no good reason to conclude that 
the fresh lungs, warm from the sick beast, cannot give 
off emanations virulent to any susceptible animal. This 
question of the susceptibility of the healthy animals exposed 
is the first that suggests itself; and in the report of 
the experiments in question there is not a hint that 
this susceptibility had been tested. Had the animals 
that resisted exposure to the diseased lungs been after- 
wards infected by contact with sick cattle, the claim that 
the lungs could not convey the disease after their removal 
from the body would have been rendered much more 
plausible. At present, the thousand cases of the convey- 
ance of the virus through the air of a stable must be held 
as more authoritative than the three negative results 
from the diseased lungs at Brown Institution. 

B. Contagion by Pulmonary Exudation Introduced into 
the Nose. — Prof. Baldwin, of Glasnevin, informs me that, 
many years ago, he soaked a sponge in the liquid from a 
diseased lung and stuffed it into the nostril of a sound 
animal, which, in due time, showed all the symptoms of 
the lung fever. 

C. Contagion Carried by Attendants. — As this has been 
warmly debated on the other side of the Atlantic, I shall 
record three cases which ought of themselves to settle 
the question. 



26 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

1. In the winter of 1847-8 infected oxen were unwit- 
tingly purchased to be fed on the farm of Pitcox, East 
Lothian, Scotland. The disease spread through the 
whole herd, causing most extensive losses. The cattle- 
man on the farm was the son of the steward on the neigh- 
boring farm of Pleasants. The buildings and feeding- 
courts on the one farm were about a mile and a half 
apart from those on the other, and at the season named 
the cattle on the two places were closely confined in their 
respective yards. The man attending the sick cattle on 
Pilcox paid a weekly Sunday visit to his parents at The 
Pleasants, and never failed on such occasions to go in to 
see how his father's cow was doing. In the course of a 
few weeks the father's cow contracted the plague, and 
from her the malady spread to all the cattle on the farm, 
entailing heavy losses on the owner. 

Here the cow first attacked on The Pleasants was not 
an animal that had been recently introduced, for her owner 
had been steward under the former tenant several years 
before and had staid on under the new tenant, keeping 
the same cow throughout. A bull was kept on the farm, 
so that his cow was never taken from the premises. 
There was no plague in the district prior to the outbreak 
at Pitcox. The new tenant's own cows had never been 
sick, had all been a year or more in the place before the 
plague broke out, and were kept in a stable at the oppo- 
site side of the farm buildings, and about fifty paces from 
where the steward's cow stood in a stable alone. Infec- 
tion from that source was, therefore, out of the question. 
Finally the feeding bullocks on The Pleasants were black 
West Highland cattle, from a race and locality in which 
this disease had never prevailed ; they came on the place 
in sound health, and remained more than long enough, 
before contracting the disease, to have developed the 
symptoms of it had they brought the germs in their sys- 
tems ; they maintained excellent health until weeks aftet 



Contagion Through Visitors 27 

the steward's cow had been attacked, and finally they, as 
well as the farmer's cows, almost without exception con- 
tracted the plague, showing clearly that they had not 
acquired that immunity which comes from a previous 
attack of this affection. The facts recorded are vouched 
for by the author, who was resident on The Pleasants at 
the time and personally watched the developments. 
These facts will warrant but one conclusion, viz. : that 
the infection was carried by the steward's son "who -was 
in daily attendance on the sick cattle at Pitcox, and 
weekly visited his father's cow at The Pleasants. 

2. William "Walker of Quincy, Mass., was present at 
Squantum when cattle suffering from Lung Plague were 
slaughtered there by order of the Commissioners. He 
closely examined portions of the diseased lungs and 
walked through the blood of the slain animals. He then 
rode home a mile and a half, went to his barn and fed 
his cattle. These in due time developed the disease. 
He sold two of his cattle to E. B. Taylor, and of his herd 
of 21 all but three fell victims to the pestilence. (See 
Report of Cattle Commissioners of Massachusetts for 
1863). 

3. In February, 1879, when we began the stamping-out 
of the plague on Long Island, a gentleman of the name 
of Ditmas Jewel took a great interest in the welfare of 
the suffering milkmen, and visited one or more of the 
worst-infected stables daily. He owned one favorite 
family cow, a Jersey, which was kept alone in a private 
stable, separated by ample grounds from all adjacent 
herds. She was never removed from these premises, nor 
were other cattle admitted, yet, towards the end of March, 
she sickened, and soon perished, presenting the most 
characteristic lung-plague lesions. 

These cases are conclusive, as in no one instance was 
there any possibility of direct contact with sick animals, 
while in all there was the mediate contact through the per- 
sons and clothes of the visitors. 



28 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

D. Contagion through the Infected Buildings. — This form 
of contagion is so exceedingly common that an apology 
would be needed for referring to it were it not for the 
hardihood of some in denying all mediate contagion. Dis- 
tillery stables, where the cattle of many owners mingle, 
soon become infected in infected localities, and from that 
time onward they remain infecting, though all sick ani- 
mals are excluded. Dealers' stables suffer in a similar 
way ; and thus, after a dealer has kept an infected animal 
in his place, he continues for months or years to dissemi- 
nate cattle that infect others, though it may be impossible 
to find a sick beast on his premises at any time in the in- 
terval. One or two cases may, however, be particularized : 

John Miller, Farniingdale, L. I., traded with a 
Brooklyn dealer, January 1st, 1879, for a cow, which, soon 
after, fell ill and died. He shortly after purchased an- 
other cow, and placed her in the same stable, but she 
also sickened and died. After this, he placed a calf in 
the stable, but this also perished; and at present the 
stable remains unoccupied. 

Mrs. P. Gregory, 12th street, Brooklyn, had two cows 
and one calf in her stable in the end of February, 1879. 
When visited, one cow was very sick, and both were 
destroyed, the stable being afterwards washed with dis- 
infectant liquids. The calf was disposed of for veal. 
Two months later, Mrs. G. purchased a new cow from a 
man who had kept her as a family cow for some years, 
and put her in the same stable in which the first had 
stood. Ten days after, she showed symptoms of disease, 
and, when slaughtered, showed the characteristic lesions 
of lung fever. 

Mr. Addick, Sunnyside, near Dutchkills, L. I., kept on 
an average 22 cows, and for two years has lost heavily. 
Early in the present year he left the place, and the stable 
was let to Patrick Hollihan, who bought in fresh cows. 
Borne of these he got May 1st of J. & J. Wheeler, dealers 



Contagion Through Infected Buildings. 29 

and some July 3d of Patrick McCabe, dealer. In both 
cases the fresh cows came from the country and went to 
the stables, with our permits, furnished after examination. 
Aug. 19th four cows were found to have the lung plague 
and were slaughtered. 

Patrick Greene, West Farms, New York Co., took his 
present place in April, and stocked it with 32 fresh cows. ' 
About May 1st sickness appeared in his herd and then 
for the first time he learned that his predecessor had 
lost heavily during the past year. In company with Dr. 
Hopkins I visited his place May 14th and found seven 
sick cattle, which were accordingly slaughtered. On two 
subsequent occasions, four more diseased cows had to be 
disposed of, in spite of the fact that the buildings had 
been disinfected with chloride of lime and carbolic acid. 
Fumigation of buildings and animals twice daily with 
the smoke of burning sulphur was now enjoined, and up 
to the time of writing (three months) no new case has 
appeared. 

Messrs. Niedlinger, Schmidt & Co., brewers, 406 E. 
27th Street, New York, had a cow die a year ago (August 
1878) with symptoms implying lung plague. Another 
was put in the same stable three months later, has done 
poorly since, and Aug. 18th was found to have lung 
plague, and sacrificed accordingly. 

E. Infection through the Manure. — Mrs. Power, Franklyn 
Avenue, Brooklyn, kept 8 cows, and had made no purchase 
since the autumn of 1878. On March 26th one of her 
cows was found to be affected with lung fever, and was 
killed in consequence. The only appreciable source of 
contagion was the manure, which had been drawn from 
infected city stables, and spread on a lot where these 
cows were turned out on fine days for exercise. In spite 
of the plowing under of the manure as soon as the frost 
would allow, three more of her cattle have sickened, and 
had to be killed May 12 th. As further evidence of the con- 
3* 



SO The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

tagious nature of the affection in this case, Mr. K., her 
neighbor, who had visited and handled her first sick cow, 
has since lost one out of his herd of eleven, with unequiv- 
ocal symptoms and lesions. 

P. Contagion through Infected Pastures. — It is to an ex- 
ample of this medium of contagion that Australia owes 
her present bovine lung pestilence. In 1859 a short-horn 
cow was imported by Mr. Boodle from England into Mel- 
bourne, and was found to be affected with the lung plague. 
All of Mr. Boodle's cattle were killed and paid for by pri- 
vate subscription ; his farm was then quarantined, 
and the colonists fondly hoped that the danger had been 
averted. It happened, however, that a teamster who 
worked his ox-teams on the streets during the day, turned 
them into these proscribed pastures at night under cover 
of the darkness, and when later these animals perished, 
they had already infected large numbers belonging to dif- 
ferent herds and districts. What was thus begun by the 
cupidity of the teamster, was repeated again and again in 
quick succession, and on every side, for the herds of dif- 
ferent owners roamed at large on the unfenced pastures, 
the healthy grazed where the sick and infected had pre- 
ceded them, and soon the greater part of that immense 
island-continent lay in the grasp of the relentless pest. 

This method is a fruitful source of infection around our 
cities and villages. The cattle of different owners are 
turned out in summer on the commons and unbuilt lots 
of the city and suburbs, and even if herded by an attend- 
ant or staked on a given spot, they go in successive days 
on places where infected stock have been before them, 
and inhale the deadly contagium, from which the owner 
thinks he has been carefully guarding them. 

Wherever the practice of pasturing the cattle of differ- 
ent owners on unfenced lots is allowed, the work of ex- 
terminating the disease is most seriously retarded, if not 
rendered altogether futile, the expense to the State is in- 



Mediate Contagion. 31 

definitely enhanced and prolonged, and the hope of any 
future riddance of the pestilence is rendered extremely 
problematical. 

G-. Contagion through Pasture or Fodder. — An instance 
which came under the author's observation in East 
Lothian, Scotland, in the years from 1856 to 1862 was 
nearly allied to the above. On the Beil estate the deer- 
park was not fully stocked with game, and the right of 
pasturage for a certain number of cattle was let yearly. 
Prior to the date mentioned cattle affected with the 
plague had been placed in this field, and after this the 
affection developed year after year in the herds there 
turned out. That the infection came from the field was 
unquestionable, as the stock turned out on the deer-park 
were often from farms near by, where they had been kept 
all winter and where there had not been a trace of the 
disease for years. As the park was vacated by all but 
the deer and sheep for four or five months of the year, it 
is hardly credible that the contagium survived in the soil 
for that length of time through all the changes of a Brit- 
ish winter, and it seems more reasonable to conclude that 
it had been covered up under great accumulations of 
dried leaves, or in hay stored for the use of the 
animals. 

In conclusion it is well to add that this denial of medi- 
ate coiitagion is sustained by but very few living veterinari- 
ans, who cling to this as others still obstinately claim the 
absence of all contagion whatever, direct or indirect. 
But the best authorities, including Delafond, Bouley 
Eeynal, Gerlach, Eoloff, Bychner, Boll, Lafosse, Flem 
ing, etc., etc., advance the doctrine of mediate conta- 
gion as amply proved and indisputable. Bychner says / 
" The affection breeds a disease-germ — a contagion of a 
volatile nature. That it attacks the cow that stands in 
an uncleansed, infected stable, the many proofs of its con- 
veyance through men, and through horses that have 



32 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

stood in stables as mates with cattle, its constant exten- 
sion in a stable or in a herd, and finally its sure arrest 
by the seclusion of stables and localities afford the most 
conclusive evidence of this." (Bojatrik.) Roll says, 
" Contamination occurs from the contact of sound animals 
with the sick on roads, pastures, in stables, through the 
medium of food, of straw that has been breathed upon 
and soiled by infected beasts, by the utensils that have 
been used for the latter and by the persons who have 
attended them." (Pathologie und Therapie.) Fleming 
says, "Healthy cattle have been contaminated after 
being lodged in stables that were occupied by diseased 
ones three or four months previously. Hay soiled by 
sick cattle has induced the disease after a longer period ; 
and pastures grazed upon three months before have in- 
fected healthy stock. The flesh of diseased animals has 
also conveyed the malady ; and it is recorded that the 
contagion from cattle buried in the ground infected others 
fifty or sixty feet distant." (Veterinary Sanitary Sci- 
ence.) 

Vitality of the Vibus. 

There is much difference of opinion with regard to the 
power of the virus to resist ordinary destructive influ- 
ences. In many cases the free exposure of an infected 
place for three or four months to the action of the air 
has purified it so that fresh stock have been introduced 
with impunity. On the other hand, instances can be ad- 
duced in which cattle have been infected by being placed 
in stables in which sick cattle had been kept at least four 
months previously. Other things being equal, it will be 
preserved longest where it has been dried up and covered 
from the free access of the air. Thus, in very dry and 
close buildings, in those having rotten wood-work, or 
deep dust-filled cracks in the masonry, and in those with 
a closed space beneath a wooden floor, it clings with the 



Vitality of the Virus. 33 



greatest tenacity. Again, when the "buildings contain 
piles of lumber, litter, hay, fodder or clothing, the virus 
is covered up, secreted and preserved for a much longer 
time than if left quite empty. In these last it is pre- 
served just as it is in woolen or other textile fabrics and 
carried from place to place by human beings. 

As carried through the air the distance at which the 
virus retains its infecting properties varies much with 
varying conditions. The author has seen a sick herd 
separated from a healthy one by not more than fifteen 
yards and a moderately close board fence of seven feet 
high, and in the absence of all intercommunication of 
attendants, the exposed herd kept perfectly sound for six 
months in succession. On the other hand, infection will 
sometimes take place at a much greater distance without 
any known means of conveyance on solid objects. Boll 
quotes 50 to 100 feet, while others claim to have seen 
infection at a distance of 200 and 300 feet. But it may well 
be questioned whether in such cases the virus had not 
been dried up on light objects, like feathers, paper, straw 
or hay, which could be borne on the wind. This, 
from being in thicker layers, would escape the destruc- 
tion that would have befallen it had it been carried in 
the air only as invisible particles. 

How does the Infection enter the System ? 

The seat of the disease, its progress, and the results of 
all attempts at inoculation favor the presumption that 
the virus is usually taken in with the air breathed. Not 
only are the lesions concentrated in the lungs, but they 
begin with cloudiness and swelling of the smaller air 
tubes and surrounding connective tissues. The exuda- 
tion into the interlobular tissue, the congestion of the 
lung tissue itself, and the implication of the lung cover- 
ing, are secondary phenomena. In other words, the dis- 
ease begins where the inspired air must lodge the germs. 
Thus the inoculation of the virulent lung products on dis- 



34 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

fcant parts of the body of a sound beast rarely determines 
the characteristic lesions in the lungs, in place of which 
it induces in the seat of inoculation an exudation, less 
abundant, as might be expected from the greater density 
and resistance of the integument, but which can, like the 
morbid lung products, be inoculated on sound animals 
with protective effect. It seems probable that the poison 
is multiplied in both cases, but that the special loose and 
susceptible texture of the lung renders its production in- 
comparably more abundant, as the continuous ingress 
and egress of air through the diseased organ renders it 
immeasurably more infecting. 

JSoiv Long is a Diseased Animal Infecting ? 

Proof is wanting as to the infecting nature of the dis- 
ease during the incubation stage. If negative evidence 
were of any value in a case of this kind it would be easy 
to adduce cases in which the removal of an animal as 
soon as it showed symptons of the plague had apparently 
saved the rest of the herd. In other cases the malady 
has been eradicated from a herd by careful watching and 
the prompt removal of every animal as soon as sickness 
appeared. The period of greatest virulence is that at 
which the fever runs highest and when the lung is being 
loaded with the morbid exudation. 

But it must not be inferred that with the subsidence of 
the fever the danger is removed. It is a matter of every 
day observation that animals which have passed through 
the fever, that are now thriving well or giving a free sup- 
ply of milk, and to ordinary observers would appear iu 
pei feet health, retain the power of transmitting the dis- 
ease to others. This may continue for three, six, nine, 
twelve or according to some even fifteen months after all 
signs of acute illness have disappeared. This is easily 
explained : The tendency of the disease is to interrupt 
the circulation in the most severely affected parts of the 
lung ; this accordingly dies, and the exudation immedi- 



Infecting Animals, Susceptibility. 35 

ately around this becomes developed into a tough fibrous 
envelope, which closes off the dead mass from the adja- 
cent lung and from all communication with the external 
air. The dead and imprisoned mass now undergoes a 
process of breaking down, liquefaction and absorption, 
commencing at the surface and slowly advancing toward 
the centre. The encysted portion of dead lung is one 
mass of infecting material, and as it undergoes no change, 
except that of liquefaction, and exhales at no time any 
putrid odor, it remains infecting so long as it retains the 
solid form. At the outset more than half a lung may be 
thus encysted, and five or six months after alleged recov- 
ery we still find masses of from one to two pounds weight, 
waiting for the slow process of solution. "Whenever there 
are indications of the existence of such encysted masses 
the animal should be looked on as infecting and disposed 
of as summarily as if in the acute stages of the disease. 

Peecentage of Animals Susceptible to the Disease. 

The number of animals that contract the disease by 
exposure to the contagion is somewhat irregular. The 
French Commission of 1849 found that of 20 animals 
drawn from a healthy locality and exposed to infection, 
16 contracted the plague, 10 of them severely. Twenty per 
cent, remained refractory. In warmer climates the mortal- 
ity is greater. Dr. Lindley quotes examples from his South 
African experience, in which whole herds of 80, 130 and 
several hundred died without exception. "We find ap- 
proximate results in the hot summer of New York, and 
a reference to cases quoted above will show the destruc- 
tion of whole herds without exception. During the win- 
ter season the disease is far less violent in its manifesta- 
tions and a greater number of exposed cattle resist it. 

Alleged Insusceptibility of the Digestive Organs. 

In 1868-9 at the Veterinary College at Alfort, portions 
of the diseased lungs and several pints of the liquid ex 



36 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 



pressed from them were administered to animals without 
any bad result. Even if we could rely on such negative 
testimony, they would be of slight significance, as the 
food devoured by the ox is at the same time breathed 
upon, and any existing virus is likely to be directly in- 
haled. 

Animals Susceptible. 

Unlike the other great cattle plagues (Rinderpest and 
Aphthous Fever) this confines its ravages to the bovine 
genus. Currency has at different times been given to re- 
ports of the infection of sheep, goats and deer, but the 
transmission of the malady to these animals has never 
been satisfactorily proved. In Great Britain sheep have 
mingled in the fields with infected cattle for thirty-seven 
years without any observed transmission of the malady 
to the sheep. The same is true of Australia and the 
Cape of Good Hope, where the plague has driven many 
colonists to replace their cattle by sheep. Goats live in 
a large proportion of the stables in New York and Brook- 
lyn, yet we have never seen a goat infected. As respects 
deer, the lung plague prevailed for a series of years in 
the deer park at Biel, Scotland, but the deer never suf- 
fered. These, it is true, are but negative proofs ; they 
show only that in certain climates and conditions expo- 
sure fails to produce infection ; what might occur in a dif- 
ferent environment which materially modified the disease, 
remains to be shown. At present there is no reliable 
testimony that other animals than cattle will contract the 
affection. 

Among cattle no race, breed nor age materially modi- 
fies the susceptibility. In countries where the malady 
has prevailed for centuries the attacks are somewhat less 
severe ; but this holds true of all plagues of man or 
beast. In time the more susceptible races die off, and 
by a natural selection the survivors have the disease in a 



Immunity After One Attach. — Mortality. 37 



milder form. Sex gives no immunity; bulls suffer as 
much as cows, and oxen and calves, if equally exposed, 
furnish no fewer victims than bulls and cows. 

Immunity Confeeeed by a Fiest Attack. 

Like the different forms of variola (small-pox, sheep- 
pox, cow-pox, etc.), rinderpest, measles and scarlatina, 
the lung plague is usually taken but once by the same 
individual. Some claim that the immunity lasts but 
about two years, after which the disease may be con- 
tracted anew; but the mass of evidence goes to show 
that second attacks are exceptional, and they are proba- 
bly no more common than second attacks of small-pox, 
measles or scarlatina. The acquired immunity in infected 
districts gives a special value to animals that have passed 
through the disease, and upon this are based the prac- 
tices of protective inoculation, and of the exposure of 
young and valueless calves to the infection, that the 
losses from the plague may be materially reduced. 

Moetality. 

In recording the mortality caused by the plague the 
most varied figures are set down by authors. Much of the 
discrepancy arises from the point of view taken. Thus 
if we estimate the losses as a percentage of all the cattle 
in a district, they will appear very small inasmuch as it 
is rare to find all the herds affected. Thus Loiset states 
the losses for the entire bovine race of the department du 
Nord, France, at 4 per cent, per annum. For distillery 
stables, sugar factory stables, etc., it was 12 per cent., 
and for farms but 2 per cent. This is accounted for by 
the frequent changes in the former and the inevitable in- 
troduction of contagion. The same applies to city dairies 
where he found a mortality of 25 or 26 per cent. In the 
Nord in 19 years it had killed 212,800 beasts of a total 
value of 52,000 000 francs (over $10,000,000). 
4 



33 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

Yvart, estimating for infected herds only, stated the 
losses in Aveyron, Cantal and Lozere at 30, 40, 50, 68, 
and even 77 per cent., the average being at least 35 per 
cent. 

Gamgee secured records of 88 dairies in the city oi 
Edinburgh for the year 1861-2 and found that with au 
average holding of 1830 the plague cut of 1075 or over 58 
per cent. The yearly loss was £14,512 ($70,000). The 
actual losses in Dublin and other large cities were found 
to correspond, those of London alone being estimated at 
£80,000. The losses for the British Isles, computed from 
agricultural statistics, the records of insurance com- 
panies, etc., were close upon £2,000,000 ($10,000,000) per 
annum. 

Finlay Dunn shows from the English Cattle Insurance 
Co.'s statistics that from 1863 to 1866 the losses from this 
plague were 50 to 63 per cent, per annum. 

In Holland Sauberg records a yearly loss of 49,661 
head, while in Wurtenberg it amounted to 39 per cent. 

Mr. Lindley's observations in South Africa show that 
in that hot, dry climate the disease was most virulent even 
in cattle kept in the open air, and it was no uncommon 
thing for entire herds of several hundreds to be carried 
off by the pestilence. This is precisely in keeping with 
what we see in the hot summers of New York ; the dis- 
ease at this season becomes unusually violent, all cases 
are acute and run a rapid and often fatal course and it is 
not uncommon to see a whole herd swept off without ex- 
ception. This is a fact of supreme importance in view of 
the continued neglect of the plague in the more southern 
of our infected States. Should it be allowed to spread 
farther south and west where the semitropical summers 
will increase its severity and death rate, we shall have 
ourselves to blame for the results, and can no longer plead 
excuse on the ground of ignorance. 



Incubation. 39 



Peeiod of Incubation. Latency. 

The time that elapses between the receiving of the 
germs into the system and the manifestation of the 
earliest symptoms of the disease, varies greatly. Dela- 
fond sets it at from six to sixty days, Verheyen from ten 
to sixty days, the French Commission extends the period 
to sixty-seven days, Reynal has seen it exceed ninety 
days, and Roll and Gamgee quote from eight days to one 
hundred and twelve. It is true that Gamgee qualifies 
this by the statement that when an animal sickens four 
months after purchase, two or three latent instances of 
the diseases have preceded the obvious one. Australia, 
South Africa and Norway were each infected by cattle 
that had shown a period of incubation of three months. 
I have frequently seen cases in which cattle have passed 
three or four months after the purchase in poor health, 
yet without cough or any other obvious diagnostic symp- 
tom, and at the end of that time have shown all the 
symptoms of the lung plague. But, as such cows are 
considered by the ordinary observer to be well, and as 
many of them will Convey to the mind of the veterinarian 
nothing more than unthriftiness, we must, as a working 
rule, accept as possible an incubation of three or even 
four months. All quarantine regulations for this dis- 
ease must be based on this occasionally long period of 
latency. 

As regards the real or regular period, we may deduce 
something from the exudation and swelling in the tail in 
inoculated cases. The average period is on the ninth 
day, though it may appear as early as the fifth, or it may 
be delayed till the thirtieth or fortieth day. In the ex- 
perimental transmission of the disease by cohabitation, 
under the French Commission, a cough — the earliest 
symptom- -appeared from the sixth to the thirty-second 
day, and sometimes continued for months, though no acute 
disease supervened. 



40 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

It should be added that hot climates and seasons 
abridge the period of latency ; thus, the disease will de- 
velop more rapidly in summer than in winter, and in the 
south than in the north. Any febrile condition of the 
system will also favor its rapid development ; therefore, 
symptoms are often hastened by parturition, by heat, 
(oestrum), and by other exciting conditions. 

Symptoms. 

These vary in different countries, latitudes, seasons, 
altitudes, races of animals and individuals. They are 
caeteris paribus, more severe in hot latitudes, countries 
and seasons, than in the cold ; in the higher altitudes they 
are milder than on the plains ; in certain small or dwarfed 
animals, with a spare habit of body, like Brittanies, they 
appear to be less violent than in the large, phlegmatic, 
heavy-milking, or obese short-horn, Ayrshires and Dutch ; 
a newly infected race or cattle in a newly infected coun- 
try suffer much more severely than those of a land where 
the plague has prevailed for ages ; and finally certain in- 
divduals, without any appreciable cause, have the disease 
in a much more violent form than others which stand by 
them in precisely the same conditions. 

Sometimes the disease shows itself ' abruptly with 
great violence and without any appreciable premonitory 
symptoms, resembling in this the most acute type of or- 
dinary broncho-pneumonia. This, however, is mostly in 
connection with some actively exciting cause, such as 
exposure to inclement weather, parturition, overstock- 
ing with milk, heat, etc. 

Far more commonly the symptoms come on most in- 
sidiously, and for a time are the opposite of alarming. 
For some days, and quite frequently for a fortnight, a 
month or more, a slight cough is heard at rare intervals. 
It may be heard only when the animal first rises, when it 
leaves the stable or when it drinks cold water, and hence 



Symptoms. 41 

attracts little or no attention. The cough is usually 
small, weak, short and husky, but somewhat painful and 
attended by some arching of the back, an extension of 
the head upon the neck, and protrusion of the tongue. 
This many continue for weeks without any noticeable de- 
viation from the natural temperature, pulse or breathing, 
and without any impairment of appetite, rumination or 
coat. The lungs are as resonant to percussion as in 
health, and auscultation detects slight changes only, 
perhaps an unduly loud blowing sound behind the middle 
of the shoulder, or more commonly an occasional slight 
mucous rattle, or a transient wheeze. In some cases the 
disease never advances further, and its true nature is to 
be recognized only by the facts that it shows itself in an 
infected herd or on infected premises, and that the victim 
proves dangerously infecting to healthy animals in unin- 
fected localities. It may be likened to those mild cases 
of scarlatina which are represented by sore-throat only, 
or to the modified variola, known as chicken-pox. 

In the majority of cases, however, the disease advances 
a step further. The animal becomes somewhat dull, more 
sluggish than natural, does not keep constantly with the 
herd, but may be found lying alone ; eats and ruminates 
more tardily and less frequently ; breathes more quickly 
(20 to 30 times per minute in place of 10 to 15) ; retracts 
the margins of the nostrils more than formerly ; the hair, 
especially along the neck, shoulders and back, stands 
erect and dry ; the muzzle has intervals of dryness, and 
the milk is diminished. The eye loses somewhat of its 
prominence and lustre, the eyelids and ears droop slightly, 
and the roots of the horns and ears and the limbs are 
hot or alternately hot and cold. By this time the tem- 
perature is usually raised from 103 degrees, Fahrenheit, 
in the slightest or most tardy cases to 105 degrees and 
upward to 108 degrees in the more acute and severe. 
Auscultation and percussion also now reveal decided 
changes in the lung tissue. 



42 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

The ear applied over the diseased portions detects in 
some cases a diminution of the natural soft breathing 
murmur, or it may be a fine crepitation which has been 
likened to the noise produced by rubbing a tuft of hair 
between finger and thumb close to the ear. Where this 
exists it is usually only at the margin of the diseased 
area, while in the centre the natural soft murmur is en- 
tirely lost. In other cases a loud blowing sound is heard 
over the diseased lung, which though itself impervious to 
air and producing no respiratory murmur is in its firm, 
solid condition a better conductor of sound and conveys 
to the ear the noise produced in the larger air tubes. 

Percussion is effected by a series of taps of varying 
force delivered with the tips of the fingers of the right 
hand on the back of the middle finger of the left firmly 
pressed on the side of the chest. Over all parts of the 
healthy lung this draws out a clear resonance, but over 
the diseased portions the sound elicited is dull as if the 
percussion were made over the solid muscles of the neck 
or thigh. All gradations are met with as the lung is 
more or less consolidated, and conclusions are to be drawn 
accordingly. 

In other cases we hear on auscultation the loud, harsh, 
rasping sound of bronchitis with dry, thickened and rigid 
membranes of the air tubes, or the soft, coarse, mucous 
rattle of the same disease when there is abundant liquid 
exudation and the bursting of bubbles in the air passages. 
In others there is a low, soft, rubbing sound usually in 
jerks when the chest is being filled with or emptied of air. 
This is the friction between the dry, inflamed membrane 
covering the lungs and that covering the side of the chest, 
and is heard at an early stage of the disease, but neither 
at its earliest nor its latest stage. Later there may be dull- 
ness on percussion up to a given level on one or both 
sides of the chest, implying accumulations of liquid in 
the cavity. Or there is a superficial dullness on percus- 



Symptoms 43 



sion, and muffling of the natural breathing sound with a 
very slight, sometimes almost inaudible, creaking due to 
the existence of false membranes (solidified exudations) 
on the surface of the lung or connecting it to the inner 
side of the ribs. This is often mistaken for a mucous 
rattle that can no longer take place in a consolidated 
lung in which there can be no movement of air nor burst- 
ing of bubbles in breathing. The mucous rattle is only 
possible with considerable liquid exudation into the 
bronchial tubes and a healthly, dilatable condition of the 
portion of lung to which these lead. In rare cases there 
will be splashing sounds in the chest, or when the patient 
has just risen to his feet a succession of clear ringing 
sounds becoming less numerous and with longer intervals 
until they die away altogether. These are due to the 
falling of drops of liquid from shreds of false membrane 
in the upper part of the chest through an accumulation 
of gas into a collection of liquid below. It has been lik- 
ened to the noise of drops falling from the bung-hole into 
a cask half-filled with liquid. Peculiar sounds are some- 
times heard as wheezing in connection with the superven- 
tion of emphysema and others which it is needless to 
mention here. 

In lean patients pressure of the tips of the fingers in 
the intervals between the ribs will detect less movement 
over the diseased and consolidated lung than on the op- 
posite side of the chest where the lung is still sound. 

As seen in America, in winter, the great majority of 
cases fail to show the violence described in books. The 
patients fall off rapidly in condition, show a high fever 
for a few days, lie always on the same side (the diseased 
one), or on the breast, and have a great portion of one 
lung consolidated by exudation, and encysted as a dead 
mass, and yet the muzzle is rarely devoid of moisture, 
the milk is never entirely suspended and may be yielded 
in only a slightly lessened amount as soon .»s the first few 
days of active fever have passed. 



44 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

During the extreme heats of summer, on the other hand, 
the plague manifests all its European violence. The 
breathing becomes short, rapid, and labored, each ex- 
piration is accompanied by a deep moan or grunt, audi- 
ble at some distance from the animal. The nostrils and 
even the corners of the mouth are strongly retracted. 
The patient stands most of its time, and in some cases 
without intermission, its fore legs set apart, its elbows 
turned out, and the shoulder-blades and arm-bones, 
rapidly losing their covering of flesh, standing out from 
the sides of the chest so that their outlines can be plainly 
seen. The head is extended on the neck, the eyes prom- 
inent and glassy, the muzzle dry, a clear or frothy liquid 
distils from the nose and mouth, the back is slightly 
raised, and this together with the spaces between the ribs 
and the region of the breast-bone are very sensitive to 
pinching, the secretion of milk is entirely arrested, the 
skin becomes harsh, tightly adherent to the parts beneath 
and covered with scurf, and the arrest of digestion is 
shown by the entire loss of appetite and rumination, the 
severe or fatal tympanies (bloating), and later by a pro- 
fuse watery diarrhoea in which the food is passed in an 
undigested condition. If the effusion into the lungs or 
chest is very extensive the pallor of the mouth, eyelids, 
vulva, and skin betrays the weak, bloodless condition. 
The tongue is furred and the breath of a heavy, feverish, 
mawkish odor, but rarely foetid. Abortion is a common 
result in pregnant cows. 

Couese. Tekmination. 

In summer, when the disease shows its greatest vio- 
lence, the mortality is not only high, but early. " Cattle 
will die after a few days' illness from the great prostra- 
tion attendant on the enormous effusion into the organs 
of the chest, the impairment of breathing and the im- 
pairment or suspension of the vital functions in general, 



Course. — Termination. 45 

Others die early from distension of the paunch with gas. 
In others, still, the profuse scouring helps to speedily 
wear out the vital powers. In severe cases, that survive 
for some time, the rapid loss of flesh is most surprising. A 
loss of one-third of the weight in a single week is by no 
means uncommon, and even one-half may be parted with 
in the same length of time in extreme cases. 

In fatal cases, with a moderately rapid course, all the 
symptoms become more intense for several weeks, the 
pulse becomes more and more small, weak and ac- 
celerated and finally imperceptible, the breathing be- 
comes rapid and difficult, the mucous membranes of the 
mouth, eyes, etc., become pale and bloodless, emaciation 
goes on with active strides and death ensues in from two 
to six weeks. 

In other cases and especially in cold and dry weather 
a portion of dead lung may remain encysted in the chest, 
submitting to slow liquefaction and removal, and such 
animals will go on for months doing badly, only to sink 
at last into such a state of debility that death ensues 
from exhaustion and weakness. 

In others, still, the retention of such diseased masses 
and the consequent debility, determines the appearance 
of consumption (tuberculosis), which cuts off the animal. 

Purulent infection and rupture of abscesses into the 
chest are other causes of death in this disease, but 
neither of these has so far come under my notice. 

In cases about to recover, the symptoms gradually sub- 
side, life and appetite are re-acquired, and a more or less 
rapid recovery takes place. In the most favorable the 
exudations are slowly re-absorbed and the lung may be 
restored to its natural state. In others, the exudation, 
which is mostly in the interlobular tissue, becomes in 
part organized into fibrous material which, in contract- 
ing, compresses the lobules of lung tissue, lessening their 
capacity for dilation, and leaving the animal short-wind- 
ed and predisposed to emphysema and other lung 



46 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

troubles. If kept quiet, such convalescents fatten rap- 
idly. # ' 

Far more frequently, in this country at least, a mass ol 
lung is entirely lost, being divested of its vitality, enclosed 
in a fibrous cyst, and slowly liquefied and absorbed 
through a course of several months. These continue to 
do poorly for a number of months and may yet entirely 
recover, the whole dead mass having been finally re- 
moved and the sac having contracted into a dense fibrous 
structure. Erven in this case if the patient has been able 
to bear up under the continued drain, and has escaped 
consumption and other risks, it may finally be successfully 
fattened. 

Appearances or the Chest and Lungs after Death. 

If the disease is seen in its earliest stages the changes 
are altogether confined to the tissue of the lung. From 
the examination of the lungs of several hundred diseased 
animals I can confidently affirm that the implication of 
the serous covering of the lung (pleura) is a secondary 
result. In all the most recent cases we find the lung 
substance involved and the pleura sound, while in no one 
instance has the pleura been found diseased to the exclu- 
sion of the lung tissue, or without an amount and char- 
acter of lung disease which implied priority of occurrence 
for that. Yet in all violent attacks the disease will have 
proceeded far enough to secure implication of the pleura 
as well, and hence we may describe the changes in the 
order in which they are usually seen when the chest is 
opened. 

The cavity of the chest usually contains a quantity of 
liquid varying from one or two pints to several gallons, 
sometimes yellowish, clear and transparent, at others 
slightly greenish, brownish-white and opaque or even ex- 
ceptionally slightly colored with blood. This effusion 
contains cell-forms and granules, and gelatinizes more ot 
less perfectly when exposed to the air. 



Post-Mortem Appearances. 



On the surface of the diseased lung and to a less ex- 
teat on the inner side of the ribs is a fibrinous deposit 
(false membrane), varying from the merest rough pellicle 
to a mass of half an inch in thickness, and in the worst 
cases firmly binding the entire lung to the inner side oi 
the chest and to the diaphragm. These false membranes 
are usually of an opaque white, though sometimes tinged 
with yellow, and in the deeper layers even blood-stained, 
especially over an infarcted lung. A noticeable feature 
of these false membranes and one that serves to distin- 
guish them from those of ordinary pleurisy is that they 
are commonly limited to the surface of the diseased por- 
tion of lung, or if more extensive that portion which cov- 
ers sound lung tissue is much more recent, and has prob- 
ably been determined by infection from the liquid thrown 
out into the chest. 

In the lung itself the most varied conditions are seen 
in different cases and at different stages of the disease. 
The diseased lung is solid, firm and resistant, seems to 
be greatly enlarged because it fails to collapse like the 
nealthy portion when the chest is opened, is greatly in- 
creased in weight and sinks in water. When cut across 
it shows a peculiar linear marking (marbling) due to the 
excessive exudation into the loose and abundant connect- 
ive tissue which separates the different lobules of the ox's 
lung from each other. This exudation is either clear, and 
therefore dark as seen by reflected light, or it is of a yel- 
lowish-white, and when filled with it the interlobular tis- 
sue appears as a net-work, the meshes of which vary from 
a line to an inch across, and hold in its interspaces 
the pinkish-gray, brownish-red, or black lung tissue. 

"When only recently attacked the lung may present two 
essentially different appearances : 

1. Most frequently the changes are most marked in 
the interlobular connective tissue, which is the seat of an 
abundant infiltration of clear liquid, a sort of dropsy, 



48 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

while the lung tissue, surrounded by this, retains its 
normal pinkish-gray color, and is often even paler and 
contains less blood than in health. It has, in short, be- 
come compressed by the surrounding exudation, and air 
and blood have been alike in great part expressed from 
its substance. (See Heliotype.) This extreme change 
in the tissue surrounding the lobules and the compara- 
tively healthy appearance of the lobules themselves, 
have led many observers to the conclusion that the dis- 
ease commenced in this connective tissue beneath the 
pleura and extended to the proper tissue of the lung. 
There is, however, as pointed out by Professor Yeo, a co- 
existent disease of the smaller air tubes corresponding to 
the lobules, that are circumscribed by this infiltration, and 
there is every reason to believe that the infiltration in 
question is the result of antecedent changes in the air 
tubes. 

2. Less frequently we find the lobules of the lung 
tissue presenting the first indications of change. The 
lobules affected are of a deep red and more or less shin- 
ing, yet tough and elastic. They do not crepitate on 
pressure, yet they are not depressed beneath the level of 
the adjacent healthy lung tissue as they would be if col- 
lapsed. The interlobular connective tissue, devoid of all 
unhealthy exudation, has no more than its natural thick- 
ness, and reflects a bluish tint by reason of the subjacent 
dark substance of the lung. Here the lung tissue itself 
is manifestly the seat of the earliest change — congestion 
— and the interlobular exudation has not yet supervened. 
Specimens of this kind may be rare, but a number have 
come under the writer's observation, and in lungs, too, 
that presented at other points of their substance the ex- 
cessive interlobular exudation. 

Both of these forms show a tendency to confine them- 
selves to particular lobules and groups of lobules of the 
lung. They correspond, in short, to the distribution oi 



Hepatization. — Infarction. 49 

particular air tubes and blood vessels, as will be explained 
further on. The fact, however, is noteworthy as charac- 
teristic of this disease, that it attacks entire lobules, and 
the limits of the diseased lung tissue are usually sharply 
marked by the line of connective tissue between two lob- 
ules, so that one lobule will be found consolidated 
throughout, and. the next in a perfectly natural condi- 
tion. 

The two forms just described differ also in cohesion 
and power of resistance. The lung saturated with the 
liquid exudation has its intimate elements torn apart and 
is more friable, giving way readily under pressure, 
while that in which there is red congestion but no ex- 
tensive exudation, retains its natural elasticity, tough- 
ness and power of resistance. 

Hepatization. — Another condition of the diseased lung 
tissue, more advanced than either of those just described, 
is the granular consolidation or hepatization. In this con- 
dition the affected regions of lung are as much enlarged as 
in the dropsical condition, but they are firmer and more 
friable, and on their cut surface present the appearance 
of little round granules. These granules are not pecul- 
iar to the lung tissue proper, though most marked on 
this ; they characterize the interlobular connective tissue 
as well. They consist mainly of lymphoid cell growths, 
filling up the air cells, the smaller air tubes, the lymph 
spaces and the meshes of the connective tissue. The 
color of these portions varies from a bright reddish-brown 
to a deep red, according to the compression to which the 
lung tissue has been subjected by the exudation in the 
early stages. (See Heliotype.) 

Infarction. — Another form of lung consolidation is of 
a very dark red or black and always implies the death of the 
portion affected. The dark aspect of the diseased lobules 
forms a strong contrast with the yellowish-white interlob- 
ular tissue, excepting in cases where that also becomes 
5 



50 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

blood-stained, when the whole presents a uniform dark 
mass. This form has the granular appearance of that last 
described and on microscopic examination its minute 
blood-vessels are found distended to their utmost capacity 
with accumulated blood globules. This black consolidation 
is always sharply limited by the borders of certain lob- 
ules or groups of lobules which are connected with a 
particular air tube and its accompanying blood vessels, 
and the artery leading to such lobules is as constantly 
blocked by a firm blood-clot. The mode of causation is this : 
The artery being in the centre of a diseased mass, be- 
comes itself inflamed. As soon as the inflammation 
reaches its inner coat the contained blood coagulates ; 
the vein is usually blocked in the same way. The blood 
formerly supplied by the artery to certain lobules is now 
arrested ; that in the capillary vessels of these lobules 
stagnates ; nutrition of the walls of the capillaries ceases 
and these losing their natural powers of selection allow 
the liquid parts to pass freely out of the vessels, leaving 
the globules only in their interior. More blood continues to 
enter them slowly from adjacent capillaries supplied from 
otiier sources, and as this is filtered in the same way by 
the walls of the vessels, these soon come to be filled to 
repletion by the globules only, and hence the intensely 
dark color assumed. The color is often heightened by 
the escape of blood from the now friable vessels into the 
surrounding tissue, and it is by this means that the in- 
terlobular tissue is usually stained. (See Heliotype.) 
This black hepatization, or as it is technically called, 
infarction, is an almost constant occurrence in the dis- 
ease as seen in New York, and the death and en- 
cysting of large portions of lung is therefore the rule. 
If too extensive, of course the patient perishes, but not 
unfrequently a mass of lung measuring four or six inches 
by twelve is thus separated without killing the animal 



Encysted Masses. 51 



If at a later stage we open an animal which has passed 
through the above condition, the following may be met 
with : A hard, resistant mass is felt at some portion of 
the lung, usually the lower and back portion, and on 
laying it open it is found to consist of dead lung tissue 
in which the hepatized lobules and interlobular tissue, 
the air tubes and blood vessels are still clear and dis- 
tinct, but the whole is separated from the still living lung 
by a layer of a white pus-like liquid, outside which is a 
dense, fibrous sac or envelope, formed by the develop- 
ment of the surrounding interlobular exudation. From 
the inner surface of this dense cyst, the firm, thick bron- 
chial tubes and attending vascular systems project in a 
branching manner like dirty white stalactites, and these 
with the interlobular tissue thickened by its now firmly 
organized exudation, may form bands extending from 
side to side of the cavity. (See engraving.) 

At a still more advanced stage the dead and encysted 
lung tissue is found to have been entirely softened and 
the sac contains but a mass of white liquid debris, or, 
still later, a caseous mass of its dried, solid matters, 
upon which the fibrous covering has steadily contracted, 
so as to inclose but a mere fraction of its original area. 
In hundreds of post mortems we have only once seen 
the dead and encysted lung the seat of putrid decompo- 
sition, and never found the cavity opening into a pervious 
air tube. 

There remains to be noticed the condition of the air 
tubes and accompanying vessels in the diseased lungs. 
In all cases where we see the starting point of the dis- 
ease we find in the small tubes leading to the affected 
lobules, a loss of the natural brilliancy of the mucous 
membrane which has become clouded and opaque, and 
the tissue beneath it infiltrated and thickened. In more 
advanced cases and above all, in those showing the drop- 
sical condition of the interlobular tissue, we find a simi- 



62 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

lar infiltration into the connective tissue around the air 
tubes and their accompanying vessels, and in the hepa- 
tized lung this is always seen as a thick, firm, resistant 
white material, having the compressed and contracted 
and often plugged air tubes and vessels in the centre. 
(See Heliotype.) These thickened masses have already 
been referred to as standing out in stalactite form from 
the inner wall of the sac in which the dead (necrosed) 
lung is undergoing solution. 

Nature of the Bovine Lung Plague. 

That the plague is determined by an infecting material 
conveyed from beast to beast there can be no doubt. The 
intimate nature of this material has never been deter- 
mined. No special anatomical element, no specific organ- 
ism of animal or vegetable origin has been detected as 
constant in the diseased organ and peculiar to it. Yet 
the presence of a specific contagium is demonstrated in all 
our experience of the disease as above recorded, and in 
the prophylactic value of inoculation to be referred to 
below. This infecting material, as will be seen by 
the records of inoculation, rarely affects the lungs 
when first lodged on a raw surface of some other part 
of the body, differing in this essentially from most other 
specific disease poisons which have a definite seat of elec- 
tion in which their morbid processes are invariably es- 
tablished, no matter by what channel they may have en- 
tered the body. Since the lung plague contagium does 
not usually affect the lungs when introduced by some 
other channel it follows almost of necessity that when it 
does attack the lungs it must have been introduced into 
these direct. If it has been inhaled in the air it will fall 
upon one of two points — the air tubes, or the air cells — ■ 
and there begin its baleful course. This is exactly in ac- 
cordance with the early lesions as described above. 

1. If arrested, as it most commonly will be, in the ail 



Nature of the Lung Flague. 53 



tubes, and if it attacks most severely the most delicate 
and susceptible parts, the membrane lining the smallest 
branches, it will determine the cloudy swelling so con- 
stantly seen in these. As the deeper layers and the adja- 
cent connective tissue is invaded, the exudation and cell 
^ proliferation giving rise to the extensive thickening of the 
peribronchial tissue, as already described, will compress the 
different vessels and obstruct the flow of liquids through 
them. The lymphatics as being incomparably the most 
delicate and compressible will be the first to suffer and 
the obstruction of these will lead to engorgement and 
dropsy in the parts from which they draw the lymph. 
The lymphatic vessels and networks are marvelously 
abundant in the interlobular tissue and few and small in 
the lung lobules themselves, hence the obstruction of 
these vessels as they lead out from a given section of lung 
will lead to a dropsical effusion into the interlobular tis- 
sue while the inclosed lobules are still comparatively un- 
affected. This sufficiently explains the excessive liquid 
exudation into the interlobular spaces without starting 
with the assumption that this is the primary step of the 
disease. 

The subsequent congestion, exudation and cell-prolifera- 
tion in the lobules themselves sufficiently account for the 
changes which these subsequently undergo. 

2. If, on the other hand, the infecting material succeeds 
in reaching the air cells it will, of course, make its earli- 
est inroads on their delicate walls. Then will follow the 
early congestion, redness and consolidation of the lobules, 
and, only later, the extensive interlobular exudation, when 
the disease in the air tubes and the extensive exudation 
around them shall have compressed the accompanying 
lymphatic vessels. In this way is explained the second 
manner of invasion which I have described above. 

The records of inoculation abundantly support these 
views. Though a number of experiments record the oc- 
5* 



54 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

currence of cough ten to fifteen days after inoculation, 
yet among the multitudes of inoculated beasts, there has 
been no evidence of extensive disease of the lungs that 
can be demonstrated to have been of this nature. The 
local changes in the seat of inoculation are like those met 
with in the lungs in the ordinary forms of the disease, al- 
lowance being made for the natural differences of struct- 
ure, and that they are specific is sufficiently evidenced by 
the now almost universal acceptance of the prophylactic 
value of inoculation. The conveyance of the disease 
from an inoculated animal is by no means unknown. 
"We have seen instances in which the plague appeared 
to start in a stable from inoculated animals, and a very 
striking instance is recorded by Eeynal in which an 
inoculated Brittany cow conveyed the affection to two 
others that stood beside her in the stable of the Alfort 
School. There is therefore every reason to believe that 
the contagium propagates itself in whatever tissue of a 
susceptible animal it may be lodged and that there the 
morbid processes are localized. 

Peevention. 

Under this head we take up that phase of the affection 
which is vital to the interests of America. That this 
plague is an exotic all history testifies. That animals 
susceptible to its contagium (buffalos) have existed in 
America for immemorial ages without a single instance 
of the spontaneous generation of the pestilence, is un- 
questionable. That any such spontaneous generation of 
the contagium would have been propagated and perpetu- 
ated in the widely wandering herds of buffalo as it has 
in the Old World steppes, the South African ranges and 
the Australian plains, is indisputable. That this Old 
World contagion can be crushed out of the New World 
States and driven back to its ancient haunts in Europe 
and Asia, and its more recently conquered territory in 
Africa and Australasia, is equally certain. 



Prevention : Its Necessity. 55 

In view of the overshadowing importance of the ex- 
tinction of this and other imported animal plagues, the 
author cannot be charged with remissness. For over a 
decade he has been continually sounding notes of alarm 
and picturing to the nation the terrible and irretrievable 
devastation that must overtake us should the deadly ex- 
otic plagues reach our western plains. Coming down to 
recent times he pressed the matter strongly on New York 
in his lectures before the State Agricultural Society in 
1877 and 1878 (see Transactions). He again brought up 
the subject in his paper read before the Centennial gath- 
ering of veterinarians at Philadelphia in 1876, and at fre- 
quent intervals in the New York Tribune, the Farmers' 
Advocate and the National Live Stock Journal. The fol- 
lowing article from the National Live Stock Journal for 
March, 1878, is a sample of these, which should be stud- 
ied to-day by all legislators, stock-owners and good citi- 
zens : 

" The Greatest Danger to our Stock. The Lung Fever. 
Contagious Pleuro-Pneumonia. 

" The Journal has frequently called attention to the great 
dangers that beset our live stock from imported plagues 
of foreign origin. During the past year the sudden in- 
vasion of Western Europe and England by the rinder- 
pest roused the agricultural community from their dream 
of safety, and called forth from the Treasury an order re- 
markable alike for its promptitude and good intentions, 
and for the fatal blunders which rendered it worse than a 
dead letter. Once more there seems a prospect of a renewal 
of these apprehensions, the Russo-Turkish war having led 
to an extension of this cattle plague into Hungary, from 
which the Atlantic coast and Great Britain may be any day 
infected, owing to the activity of the stock trade. Should 
this unfortunately take place, it will find us no better pre- 
pared than we were a year ago, and our Treasury order, now 
in force, will freely invite the disease to enter, provided it 
makes its advent respectably — in the systems of blooded 
stock, and not in poor cross-bred animals, which it would 



56 The Lung Plague of Catth 



be ruimus to import, even if sound. A similar welcome 
is extended, by implication, to all those ruminants which 
are devoted more particularly to luxury, and have not 
been degraded to such vulgar utilitarian objects as the 
production of meat or wool. Yet all ruminants are sub- 
ject to rinderpest, and this malady was carried to Franc? 
in 1866 by two gazelles, as other plagues have often been 
carried to new countries by the privileged blooded stock. 

"But we started out to notice a danger which is no 
longer separated from us by the broad barrier of the At- 
lantic, and whose malign presence is not to be dismissed 
by any one of ten thousand contingencies, as is the case 
with the possible advent of the rinderpest. This danger 
stands in our midst, and is steadily gaining in force as it 
encroaches further and further, showing how certain it 
is, if unchecked, to lay the whole country under contri- 
bution, and inflict most disastrous and permanent losses. 
The lung fever of cattle, imported into Brooklyn, L. I., 
for the first time, in 1843, in a European cow, has never 
since been at any time entirely absent from our soil. From 
this center it has slowly and irregularly extended over a 
portion of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Mary- 
land, Delaware and Virginia, besides having repeatedly 
invaded Connecticut. The slowness of its extension has 
begotten a false sense of security, and no real apprehen- 
sions of serious consequences remain from an animal 
poison which has been for over a third of a century hid- 
den away in the near vicinity of the Atlantic coast. 

"To disturb this comfortable and restful condition of 
the public mind is an unpleasant task, which nothing but 
the imperative sense of duty would compel us to under- 
take. But this disease has a history, which we can only 
ignore at our peril ; and as its records can now be drawn 
from all quarters of the globe, we can have before us an 
unequivocal testimony as to what will inevitably happen 
under given conditions of climate, surroundings and 
treatment. 

"England imported the lung fever of cattle in 1842, just 
one year before we did, was soon very generally infected, 
and has continued so to the present time. Up to 1869 
it is estimated that England had lost, almost exclusively 
from this disease, 5,549,780 head of catib, worth £33,'- 



Losses in England. 57 

616,854 (say $400,000,000). For the succeeding nine 
years, up to 1878, the losses have been, in the main, as 
extensive, so that we may set them down as now reach- 
ing at least $500,000,000 in deaths alone, without count- 
ing all the contingent expenses, of deteriorated health, 
loss of markets, progeny, crops, manure, etc., disinfec- 
tion, quarantine, etc. With us no attempts have been 
made to estimate the losses, but they cannot exceed an 
inconsiderable fraction of those above named; and thus 
we have slept on in a pleasant dream of immuuity. 

"It is even alleged that the disease has, in a great meas- 
ure, been shorn of its virulent power, by being trans- 
planted to the shores of the New World, and that we may 
comfort ourselves with this and continue to ignore its 
presence. If, on the other hand, it can be shown that 
the difference is- in no material respect affected by cli- 
mate, but altogether determined by the surroundings, it 
will be well for us to attend to the facts of the case, and 
face the real danger. The lung fever, which had really 
entered England, by a special importation, some time be- 
fore the free trade act of 1842, was, by virtue of this act, 
thrown upon her in constantly accumulating accessions. 
The ports at which the continental cattle were landed, 
and the markets in which they were sold — London (Smith- 
field Market), Southampton, Dover, Harwich, Hull, New- 
castle, Edinburgh, etc. — insured the mingling of the im- 
ported stock, week by week, with the native store cattle. 
Then, if they failed to find a profitable sale, they were 
sent by cars to other and inland markets, where they 
were again and again brought into contact with numer- 
ous herds of store cattle, by which the germs of the dis- 
ease were taken in and carried all over the country. 

" With us, on the other hand, the disease was long con- 
fined to the dairies of Brooklyn and New York, where 
the cows were kept until they died, or were fattened for 
the butcher. A few, doubtless, found their way to the 
country, and by these the disease was carried to different 
farms, which were thus constituted centres of contagion 
from which the adjacent country became infected. But 
any such movement from the city dairies was necessarily 
of the most restricted kind, and it never took place to 
any grea 4 ; distance. It would have been folly tc move a 



58 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

common milch cow, worth $40 to $70, to the West, where 
she could be bought for one-half or one-third of thai 
sum. The same deterrent condition existed in the case 
of the farms on which the diseased city cows had been 
brought. Sales were no doubt occasionally made from 
infected herds, to secure the apparent value of an animal 
which the owner had good reason to believe to be 
doomed, and as such animals would, for obvious reasons, 
be sent as far from home as possible, this became a prin- 
cipal means of the formation of more distant centres of 
contagion and the wider diffusion of the malady. But 
with us the disease has hitherto had to fight against the 
heaviest obstacles — the current of cattle traffic having 
been almost without exception from the cheaply-raised 
herds of the West to the profitable markets of the East. 
The exceptions have only been in the case of thorough- 
bred stock, and hitherto our Western stock has escaped 
contamination by this means. 

"The wonder is not so much that the plague has failed 
to reach the West, but that in the face of such tremen- 
dous obstacles it has succeeded in invading all of the six 
or seven States that are now infected. In Great Britain, 
where some would have us believe that the disease is 
more virulent, we can point to a more satisfactory record. 
There the great body of the country has been infected 
for thirty-five years, but the greater part of the high- 
lands, exclusively devoted to the raising of cattle and 
sheep, has enjoyed the most perfect immunity. Here, under 
nearly all possible predisposing causes of lung disease — 
altitude, exposure, cold, chilling rains and fogs, the 
piercing blasts of the Atlantic and German Oceans — this 
contagious lung disease has never penetrated, though se- 
verely ravaging the lowlands immediately adjacent. The 
explanation is, that these hills support none but the native 
black cattle, and other breeds are never introduced. In 
spite of the alleged virulence of the disease in England, 
it has proved powerless to enter this magic circle from 
which all but the native stock is excluded. The same 
holds true concerning some parts of Normandy, Brittany, 
the Channel Islands, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, 
etc. 

"The fact that the disease has maintained a foothold 



The Contagion, Insidious and Tenacious. 59 

among us for thirty-four years, and in spite of all obsta- 
cles has made a slow but constant extension, is sufficient 
ground for the gravest apprehensions. A disease-poison 
which shows such an obstinate vitality and such persist- 
ent aggressiveness cannot be allowed to exist among us 
without the certainty of future losses which will eclipse 
those of Great Britain by as much as our herds of cattle 
exceed those of that nation. A recent outbreak in Clin- 
ton, N. J., caused by a cow brought from Ohio, suggests 
the possibility of the disease having already reached the 
latter State, an occurrence which was inevitable sooner or 
later, but the actual existence of which must enormously 
increase our dangers. With every such step westward 
there is the introduction of more diseased and infected 
cattle into the natural current of the traffic, and the ear- 
lier probability of the general infection of all parts to the 
east of such ultimate centres of disease. There is, 
further, the infection of more cattle cars which, carried 
west, may be the means of securing a rapid extension of 
the plague to our most distant States and Territories. 

"Belattve Dangers of the Poisons of Lung Fever and 
other Plagues. 

" The persistent vitality of the lung-fever 'poison, in com- 
parison with that of any other animal plagues, is note- 
worthy. It has held a tenacious grasp on the United 
States for over a third of a century, though forbidden by 
circumstances to make a wide extension. Aphthous fever 
(foot and mouth disease), on the other hand, though 
twice imported into Canada within the last ten years, and 
on one occasion widely spread in New York and New 
England, was on each occasion easily and early extin- 
guished, and with little or no effort on the part of the 
States. It might indeed almost be said to have died out 
of itself. Even the dreaded rinderpest has its poison 
early destroyed by free exposure to the air, in thin lay- 
ers, at the ordinary summer temperature. Numerous ex- 
periments on hides hung up and freely exposed in warm 
weather, have shown that the infecting power is lost as 
soon as they are quite dried. But the poison of lung 
fever maintains its virulence for months in the dry state 



60 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

in buildings, and we have known parks, with sheds, that 
proved regularly infecting year after year to all cattle 
turned into them. In other cases we have known the 
virus carried for miles on the clothes of attendants, and 
thus introduced into new herds. 

"A far greater danger lies in the lengthened period dur- 
ing which the poison of lung fever remains dormant in 
the system. This averages about three weeks or a 
month, but may extend, in exceptional cases, to not less 
than two or even three months. An ox or a cow which 
has been exposed to the contagion may, therefore, be 
carried from one extremity of the continent to the other, 
may be exposed in a succession of markets, and may 
change hands an indefinite number of times, and be all 
the while in the best apparent health, though infallibly 
approaching the manifestation of the disease, and for the 
latter portion of the time spreading the germs of the 
malady to others. There is here an opportunity for the 
unscrupulous to sell off exposed and infected animals 
without the purchaser having the least suspicion of foul 
play. There is also the strong probability of animals 
that have contracted the disease by accident, in cars or 
otherwise, in passing to a new home, mingling with the 
herd of the new owner and infecting them extensively be- 
fore there is a suspicion that anything is amiss. This 
long period of incubation after the animal is infected, and 
the equally long period of latency of the malady in ani- 
mals he has infected, one or two of which only will be at- 
tacked at intervals of a month, lull suspicion as to the 
presence of contagion, and it is too often only after great 
damage has been done that the truth dawns on the 
mind. 

"In aphthous fever and rinderpest, on the other hand, 
the disease shows itself in from one to four days after in- 
fection, and the surrounding animals are so rapidly at- 
tacked after the coming of the infected stranger, that 
there is no room for hesitancy as to the existence of con- 
tagion. Nor can the victims of these diseases be carried 
far from the point where they have been infected and dis- 
posed of as sound animals, so that in the very vigor and 
promptitude of their action we have an excellent basis foi 
their restriction and control. 



Probable Infection of the West by Thoroughbreds. 61 



" Danger of Infection in our Unfenced Stock Kanges. 

" It is needful to note the above-named insidious prog- 
ress and stealthy invasions of the lung fever, and to con- 
trast them with the more prompt and open manifestations 
of the other animal plagues, in order to show the great 
peril to which we are subjected by the presence in our 
midst of a pestilence which literally walketh in darkness. 
Let us now consider the prospective infection of our great 
stock ranges. That this is inevitable, though slow, at the 
present rate of progress of the plague, has been suffi- 
ciently shown. That it might occur any day by an ani- 
mal infected in an Eastern farm or stock-yard, or in a 
railroad car in which it was sent for the improvement of 
the Western herds, must be abundantly evident to every 
one who has read this article. If we now add the fact 
that more than one thoroughbred Ayrshire and Jersey herd 
has been infected with this disease during the past year, 
we are at once confronted with a strong probability of an 
early Western infection. Let us remember that thorough- 
breds alone are carried West for improvement of native 
herds, and that a bull of the Ayrshire, Jersey, Holstein, 
or short-horn breed, taken from a herd now or recently 
infected, may be carried to any of our Western Territories 
and mingle for a month with the native herds before his 
own infection is so much as suspected ; and we can con- 
ceive how imminent is the danger when the infection has 
reached our Eastern thoroughbred cattle. 

" To illustrate the result of the infection of our unfenced 
stock ranges, I must quote another page from the history 
of this disease in other couutries. The instance of Aus- 
tralia is the most recent as well as the most striking. 
The lung fever was introduced into Melbourne in 1858. 
by a short-horn English cow, which died soon after land 
ing. Having been confined to an inclosed place, there is 
every reason to believe that with her the disease would 
have ended, had not a teamster turned his yokes of oxen 
into the infected park under cover of the night. These 
oxen working on the streets infected others, the disease 
soon spread to the open country, and the mortality in- 
creased at an alarming rate. Vigorous measures ior its 
suppression were adopted, thousands of infected and dis- 

6 



62 The Lung Plague of Cuttle. 

eased cattle were slaughtered, but all proved of uo avail 
Not only were the free, roaming herds infected, but so 
many places were contaminated that it was soon per- 
ceived that help from this source was not to be expected. 
Destroy a whole infected herd, and you still left the in- 
fection in the station from which, in its unfenced state, 
other herds could not be excluded, and where they were 
certain to take in the germs of the malady. After enor- 
mous losses had been sustained by the combined opera- 
tions of the pest and the pole-ax, it was concluded that 
the remedy was worse than the disease, and the colonists 
reluctantly fell back on the expedient of inoculation. 
This is based on the fact that the disease is rarely con- 
tracted a second time by the same animal, and it can be 
practiced on all calves with losses at the rate of from two 
to five per cent, only, so that the mortality is insignificant 
as compared with the thirty to fifty per cent, which per- 
ish where the affection is contracted in the ordinary way. 
The great objection to inoculation is, that it can only be 
practiced at the expence of a universal diffusion of the 
poison, and of its maintenance in a state of constant ac- 
tivity and growth. "With such a universal diffusion of the 
virus, the stock owners are virtually debarred from in- 
troducing any new stock for improving the native breeds, 
or infusing new vigor or stamina, inasmuch as such new 
arrivals would almost certainly fall early victims to the 
plague. Australia, therefore, now suffers from the per- 
manent incubus of the lung plague, and can only import 
high-class cattle at great risk. 

"This is an occurrence of yesterday, but it is only a 
repetition of the immemorial experience of the steppes of 
Russia. There we find the same conditions of great herds 
roaming free over immense uninclosed tracts, and all the 
facilities for an easy and wide diffusion of animal poi 
sons. There, accordingly, we find the home, in all ages, 
of the animal plagues of the Old "World. To these end- 
less steppes Europe and European colonies owe their 
frequent invasions of lung fever, rinderpest, aphthous fever, 
and sheep-pox. To these are to be charged the losses, to 
be estimated only by many thousands of millions, which 
have repeatedly fallen on the other civilized countries of 
the world. From these steppes the disease has spread over 



Prospective Losses. 63 

the continent on the occasion of every great European 
war, dating from the expulsion of the Goths from Hun- 
gary by Attila and his Huns, in A. D. 376, down to the 
present Turkish war, which has secured the extension of 
the rinderpest to Hungary at least. On these steppes, 
too, the Russian veterinarians believe the rinderpest, at 
least, to be an imported disease derived from Eastern and 
Central Asia, yet all their efforts to crush out this or the 
lung fever, though receiving the freest support from the 
Russian Government, have failed. The same conditions 
exist, to a large extent, at the Cape of Good Hope ; and 
there, too, the lung fever, imported in 1854, has acquired 
a permanent residence. 

"Preventive Measures Demanded. 

" Such is the history. Now comes the question preg- 
nant with weal or woe to our future stock, agricultural 
and national interests. Shall we learn from the disas- 
trous experience of others and extirpate the lung plague 
from the United States while it is still possible, or shall 
we sit quietly by with folded hands and await the inevit- 
able, early or late, infection of our open Western stock 
ranges, and then repeat, for the benefit of other nations, 
the already twice-told tale of a desperate and extrava- 
gant but fruitless attempt to suppress a plague which we 
have criminally allowed to pass beyond our control? 
With or without a prodigal but vain effort to crush out 
the poison, the results may be thus summed up : The in- 
fection of stock-yards, loading-banks, cars and markets, 
and a general diffusion of the plague over the Eastern 
States. This would imply a national loss, by cattle dis- 
ease, like that of England, but much more extensive in 
ratio with our great numbers of stock. Thus England, 
with her 6,000,000 head of cattle, has lost in deaths alone 
from lung fever in the course of forty years over $500,- 
000,000. We, therefore, with our 28,000,000, should lose 
not less than $2,000,000,000 in the same length of time, 
allowing still a wide margin for the lower average value 
per head in America. And this terrible drain is for 
deaths alone, without counting all the expenses of dete- 
riorated health in the survivors, of produce lost, of loss 



64 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

of progeny, of loss of fodder no longer safe to feed to 
cattle, of diminished harvests for lack of cultivation and 
manure, of quarantine and separate attendants wherever 
new stock is brought on a farm, of cleansing and disin- 
fection of sheds and buildings, etc., which become abso- 
lutely essential in the circumstances. 

"We do not include the expense of supervising the 
trade, examining and quarantining the stock at the front- 
ier of every State, and of the disinfection of cars, load- 
ing-banks, stock-yards and markets. If such were re- 
sorted to, after an extensive infection of our Western 
herds by lung fever, the cattle trade would be virtually 
stopped; Thus a safe quarantine for store cattle of not 
less than three months would be absolutely essential. 
Then the quarantine yards and sheds would be continual 
centres of infection, and would require to be very exten- 
sive, thoroughly isolated from each other, and constantly 
and perfectly disinfected, the air as well as the solids, to 
prevent the infection of newly-arrived stock. Such an 
incubus upon the trade would amount to a virtual prohi- 
bition. In rinderpest, sheep-pox, and aphthous fever, 
quarantine is a comparatively simple and available ex- 
pedient, as the disease shows itself within a week ; but, 
in lung fever, with the germs lying unsuspected in the 
system for one or two months, a protective quarantine is 
practically impossible wherever an active cattle trade is 
carried on. Hence in the countries of Central and West- 
ern Europe, through which the active traffic from the 
East is carried on, a complete control is usually main- 
tained over rinderpest and sheep-pox, while the people 
have resigned themselves to the prevalence of lung fever 
as an unavoidable infliction. The same holds in Great 
Britain. Twice within eleven years has she crushed out 
invasions of rinderpest, and repeatedly has the same 
thing been accomplished for sheep- pox ; but the lung 
fever is accepted as a necessary evil, between which and 
her large importations of continental cattle she must 
make a deliberate choice. 

" Happily, in these United States, we are as yet undei 
no such compulsion. The lung fever on American soil is 
still confined to the Eastern States and to inclosed farms, 
from which it is quite possible to eradicate it thoroughly 



Stamping Out Possible. 65 

Of this possibility we have abundant evidence, alike in 
the Old World and the New. In several countries of 
Western Europe, through which there is no continuous 
cattle traffic between nations on opposite sides, this dis- 
ease has been killed out and permanently excluded by an 
intelligent veterinary sanitary supervision. Sweden im- 
ported the disease in Ayrshire stock in 1847, but at once 
circumscribed the infected herds and places, slaughtered 
the diseased, disinfected all with which they had come in 
contact, and promptly extinguished the outbreak. Den- 
mark, invaded the same year from a similar source, and 
on several subsequent occasions from Holland and En- 
gland, as often quenched the poison by analogous 
measures. Oldenburg, Schleswig and Norway, success- 
ively invaded by the importation of infected Ayrshires, 
in 1858, 1859 and 1860, respectively, enjoyed a similar 
happy riddance, through the application of the same sys- 
tem of suppression. Switzerland, long slandered as the 
native home of the lung plague, has at last awoke to the 
truth of the statement of the immortal Haller, made 
more than a century ago, that this disease only occurs 
' when an animal has been brought from an infected dis- 
trict'; and by the judicious use of suppressive meas- 
ures, has permanently rid the country of the pesti- 
lence and demonstrated that the Alpine air is as clear 
and wholesome for beast as for man. 

"In America, Massachusetts and Connecticut have fur- 
nished examples equally striking. The former imported 
the disease in Dutch cattle in May, 1859. In April, 1860, 
when it had gained nearly a year's headway, an act was 
passed, and a commission appointed, with full power tc 
extirpate it. After the slaughter of 932 cattle, it was 
believed that this had been achieved ; but new centres 
of infection were discovered in the two succeeding years, 
aud it was not until 1865 that the commonwealth was 
purged of the poison. Since that year the lung fever 
has been unknown in Massachusetts. Connecticut has 
had a like experience, Her proximity to Ne w Tork City 
and Long Island has brought upon her a series of inva- 
sions ; but, profiting by the experience of her neighbor, 
she has, on each occasion, grappled successfully with the 
enemy, and driven him from her midst. 



66 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

" What lias been done by the Scandinavian nations, by 
Oldenburg and Switzerland, by Massachusetts and Oon- 
.ecticut, can be done by all of our Eastern States. On this 
•>oint the teaching of history is as unequivocal as on the 
certainty of the irreparable results if our open "Western 
stock ranges were infected. The one indispensable pre- 
requisite to success is the vigorous and simultaneous ac- 
tion of the various infected States, and its persistent 
maintenance until the last infected beast has disappeared 
and the last contaminated place or thing has been puri- 
fied. It matters little whether controlled by State or 
National government, if vigor and uniformity of action 
can be secured; but, as such combined and unflagging 
work is necessary, it could be best controlled by an in- 
telligent central authority. The United States Govern- 
ment is as much called upon to defend her possessions 
against an enemy like this — so implacable, so relentless 
and so certain, if not repelled, to lay us under an incubus 
which will increase with the coming centuries, and dwarf 
the prosperity to which we are entitled — as against the 
less insidious one who attacks us openly with fire and 
sword. Let the national Congress consider this matter 
well. Let every stock-holder press it upon his Repre- 
sentative as a matter that cannot be safely ignored even 
for a single day. Let boards of agriculture, farmers' 
clubs and conventions, granges, and all citizens who value 
the future well-being of the nation, unite in a strong rep- 
resentation on the subject. If the present Congress 
should neglect it, let citizens make it a test question to 
every future candidate for their suffrages, and elect only 
such as are pledged to carry suppressive measures into 
effect. The danger threatens all classes alike, though 
the first sufferers will be the stock-owners ; for every tax 
upon production necessarily enhances the value of the 
product ; and, as agricultural progress must be seriously 
retarded, the tax will not fall upon meat alone, but upon 
every product of the farm. Nothing can excuse a con- 
tinued neglect of this subject, the dangers surrounding 
which increase from day to day, and the final results of 
which, if once it reaches our Western and Southern 
States and Territories, can only be computed by the 
prospective increase of our population and our herds of cat- 



Probable Losses in 1900. 67 



tie. For this is not like an evil preying on our currency, 
banking, trade, or manufactures, the full extent of which 
may be, in a great measure, seen from the beginning, and 
the repair of which may be at any time inaugurated by 
legislative enactment. The animal plague only increases 
its devastations as we increase the numbers of our herds, 
and threatens soon to acquire an extension to which no 
legislation can oppose a check, and a prevalence in the 
face of which the most desperate efforts of the nation 
will prove of no avail. Thus, our cattle are increasing 
at the rate of 13,500,000 every ten years, so that, by the 
end of this century they may be exactly doubled, with a 
prospective loss, if our Western and Southern ranges are 
infected, of $130,000 000 yearly in deaths alone. 

" The choice is now in our power. So far as we know, 
our stock-raising States and Territories are still unaf- 
fected. We can still successfully meet and expel the 
invader; next year it may be too late." 

On April 15th, 1878, the New York Protective Bill be- 
came law, but no practical application of it was made 
until the present year. In the New York Weekly Trib- 
une for November 27th, 1878, another call for action was 
made in connection with the prevalence of the disease 
around Washington. This was immediately quoted by 
various English papers and a demand was made for the 
embargo of American cattle. It was followed by the con- 
demnation at Liverpool of the cattle shipped in January, 
on the Ontario, from Portland, Maine, by the institution 
of special inquiries by H. B. M. Consul-General in New 
York, by the mission of Professor McEachran on the 
part of the Dominion Government in the end of January, 
1878, and his report that the plague existed in Washing- 
ton, Philadelphia and Brooklyn, by the author's commis- 
sion from Governor Robinson, February 6th, and his re- 
port of the presence of the plague in Kings and Queens 
counties, on February 9th, and by the Privy Council or- 
der of the same date that all American cattle should be 
slaughtered on their arrival at English ports. With 



68 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 



characteristic promptitude, Governor Robinson delegated 
General Patrick as his representative, and invested Mm 
with plenary powers to crush out the contagion. 

This much may be allowed as showing the progressive 
steps that led to the inauguration of the present move- 
ment for the extermination of this disease on the West- 
ern Continent. In turning to consider specific measures 
for the prevention of the plague we must pass the differ- 
ent methods under review, consider which are adapted to 
our case and which inapplicable, and make references to 
special measures demanded by the the conditions of par- 
ticular localities. 

1. Protection of a Country against an Invasion of the 
Lung Plague. 

(a) Total Exclusion of Foreign Cattle and their unmanu- 
factured Products. 

In the above it has been conclusively shown that no 
country has been invaded by this disease that has not 
imported cattle from without, and that countries like 
Spain, Portugal, the Channel Islands, the Scottish High- 
lands , Norway and Sweden that do not import but raise 
their own cattle exclude the pestilence though it may be 
raging fiercely at their very doors. If America were once 
purged of this desolating pest, and if for her permanent 
protection it were necessary to prohibit all importation 
of cattle, immunity would be cheaply bought at such a 
price. America can now show as good blood in her dif- 
ferent races of cattle as is to be found in Europe ; but if 
it were otherwise, what is the present or prospective 
value of a Duchess to the risk entailed on our 30,000,000 
head of horned cattle and their offspring for all future 
time ? 

Of unmanufactured products, hides and hair are alone 
important, and as regards both, the risk is infinitesimal. 
Yet it cannot be denied that the contagium is preserved 



Banger from Western Europe: Quarantine. 69 

for months in dried buildings, and as the same thing 
seems possible as regards dried hides and hair, it would 
seem that to insure perfect safety it must be enacted that 
no foreign hides should be carried in cars or other vehi- 
cles to be afterwards used for the conveyance of cattle or 
about places where cattle are found, and that cattle shall 
be rigidly excluded from all tanneries where foreign hides 
are received. 

That such precautions are necessary is shown by the 
facts, that in the past year 3,039 cattle were attacked in 
38 English counties ; 1,522 in 23 Scotch counties ; and 32 
in 5 Welsh counties ; that 1,932 head are reported at- 
tacked in Germany ; that 698 are reported in Holland ; 
that in France the existence of the plague is reported 
from the Department of the Bhine, La Rochelle, Ruen, 
Roubaix, Bourdeaux and Nantes ; and that Switzerland 
and Belgium are infected. 

(b) Importation subject to a Quarantine which shall insure 
Protection. 

Exeptional cases will arise when it seems of the high- 
est importance that foreign cattle should be admitted. 
This can only be done safely after a quarantine at the 
port of landing under the eye of an expert. The length 
of such quarantine must be determined by the time 
tliat the seeds of the plague may lie in the system un- 
recognized. We have seen that this cannot be safely 
stated at less than three months, therefore, the quaran- 
tine rhould last for this length of time. The infection, of 
Norway and Australia by cattle that had passed through 
an incubation period of three months and of South 
Africa after a period of three and a half months must set- 
tle this period without appeal. 

This having been represented to the Treasury Depart- 
ment an order was issued, July 19th, 1879, imposing a 
quarantine of 90 days on all European cattle, "except 
where State or municipal laws provide for the quaran- 



70 The Lung Plague of Cattle 

tine of such cattle, and in such cases collectors will 
permit the proper officers to quarantine them in such 
manner as the State or municipal authorities require." 
This unfortunate exception allows the State or munici- 
pality to interfere so as to make the law a dead letter. 
There is nothing in this order to hinder the Aldermen oi 
Brooklyn, or Baltimore, from authorizing the importation 
of European cattle, subject to one or eight days quaran- 
tine, and thus maintaining a permanent centre of infec- 
tion in Long Island or Maryland. To protect the nation 
this law must be national and subject to no exception. 
If Section 2,493 of the Revised Statutes does not give the 
power to make it so, Congress should enact a law which 
shall be imperative for every port, all State and munici- 
pal rights to the contrary, notwithstanding. The coun- 
try has too much at stake in this matter to sacrifice it to 
an idea. 

(c) Restrictions on Cattle from Neighboring States having 
an Insufficient Quarantine or none. 

If we exclude cattle, etc., from an infected country it 
follows, of necessity, that we must apply the same rule to 
any country that has an unrestricted trade with infected 
districts, or a trade the restrictions of which afford no 
sufficient protection against the introduction of the dis- 
ease. This affects the United States in two ways : first, 
it will apply to importations made from Canada and 
Mexico, and second, it will apply to the cattle traffic be- 
tween the Federal States themselves. 

This matter was strongly urged on the Treasury De- 
partment, and July 11th the following order was issued : 

"Teeasuey Department, 
"Washington, D. C, July 11th, 1879. 

" To the Collector of Customs, Chicago, III. : 

" The instructions of this department of February 27th, 
1879, prohibit absolutely, under the authority of Section 
2,403 of the Revised Statutes, the importation of neat cat- 



Cattle Imports Through Canada. 71 

tie from England. It is stated that neat cattle have lately 
been imported into Canada from England, and then 
shipped to the United States. You are hereby instruct- 
ed that on the arrival at your port of any neat cattle from 
Canada, they shall not be admitted to duty under any 
conditions unless you shall be satisfied, first, that they 
were not imported into Canada from England, directly or 
indirectly ; or second, that if imported into Canada from 
England, directly or indirectly, they did not arrive in 
that Dominion within ninety days prior to their arrival 
at your port. In no case shall such cattle from Canada 
be admitted if you have reason to suspect that they are 
affected with infectious cattle disease. 

"Very Respectfully. 

"A. Y. French, 

"Assistant Secretary." 

This is very well so far as it goes, but it fails to meet 
the case. It protects us against disease in imported En- 
glish cattle, but not against Canadian cattle that may 
have mixed with imported cattle in the same herd and 
thereby contracted disease. Taking into account the oc- 
cult forms of the disease and the occasional long incuba- 
tion of two or three months, security would demand that 
we should exclude all cattle that had within three 
months come in contact with English cattle imported 
within six months of the arrival of such Canadian cattle 
at an United States port. Here we must allow for two 
successive incubations of three months each in the En- 
glish and Canadian cattle respectively. 

It is further deficient in not imposing a similar prohi- 
bition on the cattle imported from the other infected 
countries of Europe, and stock that have come in con- 
tact with these. At present we have the anomaly of 
United States importers of Dutch cattle having to sub- 
mit them to a quarantine of ninety days, while the Cana- 
dian importer may introduce the same animals and ship 
them to us at once, free from all restrictions. Here the 



72 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

discrimination is altogether in favor of the Canadian 
importer, who is virtually offered a premium upon his 
imports. Let all Canadian cattle importations from Eu- 
rope be subjected to a three months' quarantine and let 
all cattle that have come in contact with such animals 
suffer a similar detention and we shall have meted out to 
them the same justice we apply at home, and established 
a reasonable protectorate over our native herds. We 
have at present no law to accomplish this ; and, notwith- 
standing the best intentions, "The Treasury Department " 
cannot interfere with the traffic in Canadian cattle, un- 
less they have been imported from Europe within three 
months. Here there is a field for legislation, and if Can- 
ada will not extend her quarantine so as to make it a 
protection to herself and us, Congress must step in and 
forbid the importation of Canadian cattle, except under a 
quarantine of three months. As already remarked of the 
fountain — Europe — so of the channel — Canada — the Uni- 
ted States can better afford to do without her cattle than 
they can risk the infection of their home herds. 

2. Protection of Heeds in Infected Countries having 
no Legislation. 

While individual States decline to stamp out this pest- 
ilence, we must offer such suggestions as shall aid the 
citizens to protect themselves. The following sugges- 
tions are submitted : 

(a) Breed your own stock. 

All experience with this plague shows that it spreads 
in direct ratio with the changes of stock. Countries and 
districts which, like the Channel Islands, Denmark, Nor- 
way and Sweden, breed their own stock and never im- 
port, preserve healthy herds. Single herds, even, that 
are kept secluded, escape in the most plague-stricken 
countries, though the disease is raging all around 
them. It is the dealer, who is constantly changing his 



Protection of Private Herds. 73 

stock, and those who buy from the dealer, that lose bj 
the infection. As a single instance, I may repeat what an 
Irish Earl (Lucan) told me of his experience. On his Irish 
estates he lost heavily and continuously, until he decided 
to exclude all strange cattle and men. The moment a 
beast was observed sick he removed it from the herd, 
and in three months his stock was healthy and continued 
so. This is the common experience of those who breed 
their own stock, and instances are given in this article of 
its perfect success in the plague-stricken districts in 
New York. 

(b) If compelled to buy, do so in a healthy district and 
transport in disinfected cars or by roads luhere there will be 
'no contact with suspicious herds, and in no case through a 
district in which infection is known to exist. 

(c) When newly purchased cattle are taken in, place them 
in quarantine in a safely enclosed barn or lot, at least 100 
paces distant from all other cattle, and under special attend- 
ants. 

The need for these precautions must be evident, as the 
disease sets in and makes some headway before even a 
watchful attendant will observe any signs of illness. 

3. Measukes for Bestricting the Mortality of the 
Plague in Generally Infected Districts. 

(a) Preventive Medication. 

In infected herds much may be done to check the de- 
velopment of individual cases, by the daily administra- 
tion of astringent tonics, and especially if they are also 
disinfectant. In herds at pasture and even in those kept 
in close and notoriously infected city stables, the daily 
use of 2 drachms sulphate of iron (ferric sulphate) has 
frequently, in our experience, put a limit to the disease 
within a month. If to the sulphate is added one drachm 
of carbolic acid, the efficacy will be increased. The same 
virtue has been claimed for a number of other astrin- 
gents which it is needless to mention. 



74 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

What is better, because more prompt in its action, is 
the inhalation of the fumes of burning sulphur. 

To Dr. Dewar, of Kirkcaldy, Scotland, belongs the 
credit of having first tested this agent on the bovine lung 
plague. He selected a city stable where sickness had 
been continuous for 20 years, and where the last victim 
had been hauled off three days before. He had the herd 
fumigated twice a day for half an hour each time and 
had no other case of sickness. I can furnish a number 
of similar cases. Patrick Green, West Farms, put a 
large herd in infected stables in April last and by July 
had lost nine head. He began fumigating the remain- 
der and has not lost an animal since. Timothy Ryan, 
Ridgewood, kept a herd of about 25 cows and had 
lost 20 within a year. His place was so saturated with 
the infected products that our own inspectors and vet- 
erinarians from a distance concluded that burning would 
be the only effectual purifier. He began fumigating June 
15th, and though 7 of his remaining 22 cows were fresh 
from the country, he has not had a case of sickness since 
— now three months. This measure must be applied most 
thoroughly to be effectual and cannot be trusted to check 
disease which has already seated itself in the lungs. It 
is only when the germs have been deposited on the sur- 
face of the air passages and have not yet made their way 
deeply into its substance that good results can be hoped 
for. The following printed instructions are distributed 
to the owners of infected herds : 

" The surviving herd should be shut up in a close 
building for half an hour once or twice a day, and made 
to breathe the fumes of burning sulphur. Close the 
doors and windows, place a piece of paper on a clean 
shovel, lay a few pinches of Flowers of Sulphur upon it, 
and set it on fire, adding more sulphur, pinch by pinch, 
as long as the cattle can stand it without coughing. 
Continue for a month." 



Isolation. 75 



(b) Isolation. 

When a herd is infected, the arrest of the disease can- 
not be hoped for unless the sick are removed from the 
healthy. The constant breathing of the infected air is 
likely to be much more deleterious than the preventive 
medication will be beneficial. On the other hand, the 
prompt removal of the sick on the first appearrnce of 
illness will often succeed in checking the disease, irre- 
spective of any other measure. 

(c) Inoculation. 

Under this heading must be considered : 1st. What 
inoculation is. 2d. Does successful inoculation prove vi- 
carious of the plague ? 3d. If vicarious, when is it ap- 
plicable ? 4th. In what conditions is it to be condemned? 

Inoculation : Its Authok, Mode, Etc. 

In December, 1850, Louis Willems, M. D., of Hassalt, 
Belgium, son of a large distiller, began his essays on in- 
oculation. To determine the susceptibility of different 
animals, he inoculated with the exudation matter from 
diseased lungs 6 rabbits, 23 pea-fowls, a number of chick- 
ens, 4 dogs, 3 sheep, 7 hogs and 2 goats, but in all the 
wounds healed without any unhealthy action. These 
animals were accordingly set down as insusceptible. Ac- 
cidental wounds of human beings were equally harmless. 
He instituted experiments on several cattle which he in- 
oculated with the liquids from healthy lungs. The result 
was only slight inflammation followed by healing. 

He inoculated three cattle, respectively, with blood, 
buccal mucus and intestinal tubercle taken from sick 
cows. These produced but slight inflammation, followed 
by prompt recovery. 

He inoculated 108 cattle with the pulmonary exudation 
of diseased lungs. In a period averaging fifteeen days 
after inoculation a swelling occurred in most of these in 
the seat of inoculation, and though afterwards kept in ai7 



76 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

infected stable all these animals resisted the disease. 01 
fifty uninoculated animals placed in the same stables, 
seventeen became diseased. 

He further re-inoculated ten cattle that had been al- 
ready successfully inoculated, and all the wounds healed 
promptly without any local swelling such as marked the 
other cases from the tenth to the thirtieth day. 

Li none of these cases was there any indication of dis- 
ease of the lungs, and in a number that were killed these 
organs were found healthy. 

He concluded that when the virus is inoculated on a 
susceptible animal, " a new disease is produced ; the af- 
fection of the lungs with all its peculiar characters is lo- 
calized in some sort on the exterior;" and that this 
disease is preservative against all future attacks of pleu- 
ro-pneumonia. 

Various commissions were appointed by different Eu- 
ropean Governments to determine the matter by experi- 
ment. The Dutch Commission composed of the Faculty 
of the Veterinary School at Utrecht reported in 1852 
that out of 247 head of cattle inoculated sixteen afterward 
contracted the disease, these being mainly composed of 
such as had the least local swelling in the seat of inocu- 
lation. They reported that inoculation had " a power, at 
least temporary, of securing against the contagion of 
pleuro-pneumonia. 

The Belgian Commission, presided over by Professor 
Verheyen, inoculated 197 cattle, fourteen of which were 
afterward kept in stables with infected animals without 
contracting the disease. 

The French Commission, presided over by Professor 
Bouley, inoculated 54 cattle, of which 48 survived and 
were made to cohabit with diseased stock. But one of 
these contracted the plague. 

Meanwhile Dr. Willems and 54 veterinary surgeons 
inoculated 5,301 head of cattle, of which 55 afterward 



Inoculation: Mode. 77 



contracted the lung plague on exposure to infection, and 
in periods varying from the 17th to the 136th day after 
the operation. 

In England a commission was appointed and after a 
series of experiments in 1854^5 they reported ad- 
versely. 

Since that time inoculation has been adopted exten- 
sively in Europe and still more largely in Australia 
and South Africa, until to-day it is acknowledged by all 
who have given attention to the subject that for the indi- 
vidual animal, it is as surely protective as is vaccination 
for small-pox, and that attacks of lung plague after suc- 
cessful inoculation are little if at all more frequent than 
are second attacks of variola. 

Mode of inoculating. — The material to be used in inocu- 
lating is the fresh liquid exudation that may be pressed 
from the substance of a lung in the earliest stage of the 
disease. If it is to be preserved for any length of time 
it is best done in hermetically sealed glass tubes. A 
glass tube one-third inch in diameter is drawn out to a 
point at each end and sealed in a blowpipe flame, the 
whole length of the tube having been heated to redness 
before the second end is closed. This destroys all germs 
that may be present in the tube and expels most of the 
air. When the liquid has been drained from the lung 
into a clean dish one end of the tube is immersed and 
broken off under the surface. Immediately the fluid rises 
in the tube and nearly fills it. The open end is again to 
be sealed in the blowpipe flame and the tube packed 
away in a safe place till wanted. 

The most eligible place to inoculate is the tip of the 
tail, since in case of excessive swelling or threatened gan- 
grene the diseased portion of the organ may be cut ofl 
and a possibly fatal result avoided. 

The mode of inserting the virus differs with the opera- 
tor. Dr. Willems plunged a lancet, charged with thf 
7* 



78 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

virus, several times through the skin on the end of the 
tail. In Australia, a worsted thread charged with the 
pulmonary exudation is drawn through beneath the skin 
and left in situ. Sticker used a hollow needle with dia- 
mond-shaped point attached to an India rubber bag con- 
taining the fluid. The needle having been inserted under 
the skin, the bag is squeezed so as to lodge a single drop 
in the tissues as it is withdrawn. As a modification of 
the same I have always used the common hypodermic syr- 
inge carefully purifying it with boiling water before and 
after use. Nicklas and Bartels recommend that the liq- 
uid be lodged immediately beneath the epidermis, as be- 
ing less likely to cause dangerous and gangrenous swell- 
ings than if inserted more deeply. Aside from this, that 
method is the best that exposes the inserted matter least 
to the action of the air, there being less danger of putre- 
faction and dangerous swellings. In my experiments 
with the hypodermic syringe I have lost from two to four 
per cent from such swellings and there can be little doubt 
that even these could have been saved had the tails been 
amputated in time. 

After treatment is seldom wanted. Willems recom- 
mends a pound of Epsom salts on the tenth day after the 
operation. In case of much swelling, astringent and an- 
tiseptic washes are recommended, but prompt am- 
putation is much safer and if resorted to early enough 
usually prevents those extensive swellings around the 
root of the tail and in the pelvis which occasionally prove 
fatal. 

Can the Lung Plague be Spread by Inoculated Cattle ? 

Almost all advocates of inoculation deny that an inoc- 
ulated animal is at all dangerous to others. In this they 
throw the gravest doubt on the value of the operation as 
a preservative. The liquids inoculated are the virulent 
products of the lung plague, and as these do not induce 
disease of the lungs but only of the tissues where thoj 



Inoculated Cattle Infecting. 79 

are inserted, it cannot be supposed that they exert any 
influence on the economy through any direct action on 
the normal seat of the disease. If protective at all it 
must be by reason of the reproduction of the germs in 
the blood or in the seat of inoculation. If in the blood 
there must be danger of their being given off by the vari- 
ous free surfaces and notably by the lungs. If in the 
tail, there is still the risk of the germs escaping from the 
wound, drying up in the building and being inhaled by 
other cattle with fatal results. It is true that the risks 
are incomparably less from germs escaping from a wound 
in the tail than from those exhaled with every breath 
from the diseased lung and diffused through the whole 
surrounding atmosphere. Yet even from the inoculation 
wound the disease has been conveyed. Eeynal mentions 
the case of an inoculated Brittany cow at the Alfort Vet- 
erinary School which infected two others standing with 
her. 

I have now under observation a stable into which the 
lung plague is alleged to have been introduced through 
the inoculation of the cows four months ago. The stump- 
tails attest the reality of the inoculation, the raw ends of 
several its recent adoption, and yet the sickness pre- 
vails. Again, it has been shown in localities in New Jer- 
sey and elsewhere when inoculation has been practiced 
on a previously healthy herd a certain number of animals 
have afterward manifested the disease. 

Reason and experience agree in showing that the poi- 
son may be thus introduced into healthy stables and there 
fore inoculation must be absolutely condemned whenever r 
speedy and effectual stamping out of the disease is de- 
sired. No country has ever succeeded in exterminating 
this plague by practicing inoculation, The most ardent 
votaries of the practice, Belgium, Holland, Prussia, En- 
gland, Australia, South Africa, New York and New Jersey 
have preserved the plague for decades in spite of the 



80 The Lung 1'lague of Cattle. 

most earnest efforts of this kind. It may be conceded 
that by means of inoculation the disease has been quickly 
passed through individual herds, and that when a country 
or district makes inoculation universal that the mortality 
is greatly reduced, yet the adoption of the operation for 
healthy herds but multiplies the centres of infection, and 
when a country is subjected to this, the plague is inevita- 
bly kept up by the occasional contamination of young 
and uninoculated animals. 

On the other hand, there are conditions in which inoc- 
ulation is to be commended. On the steppes of Eastern 
Europe and Asia, on the open lands of Australia and 
South Africa, where herds mingle day by day and infec- 
tion cannot be rooted out by any process of slaughter 
and disinfection, the practice of inoculation is found to 
reduce the losses to a minimum. In certain other condi- 
tions the operation would be admissible. In the case of 
large herds occupying insular or equally secluded locali- 
ties, where the contagion is already widely diffused and 
still spreading from beast to beast, it may be good policy 
to inoculate the whole herd, and after recovery from the 
inoculation to subject the whole to inspection and dispose 
of any still showing traces of the plague. In such a case 
all calves born in the herd must be either destroyed or 
immediately inoculated as circumstances may suggest. 
If calves are constantly coming their destruction will be 
requisite, as a continuous inoculation will entail the 
maintenance of the plague. In this way such an insular 
place might be cleared of the plague in a few months, 
whereas the resort to a similar course in a thickly settled 
district has always been shown to keep it up. 

Passing the Young thkough the Plague. 

In some countries, where the plague is all but univer- 
sally distributed, those running large dairies have found 
it profitable to pass all their stock through the disease 



State and National Measures. 81 

while calves. Mr. Harvey, of Glasgow, packed his calves 
in close buildings, sandwiching them between sick ani- 
mals, and thus passed all susceptible ones through the 
disease. He afterward turned these out on a farm to 
grow up and finally introduced them into his city daiiy 
as milch cows. The loss of 20 per cent, of his calves 
was a small outlay as compared with as many cows in 
milk ; so that he found the course quite a profitable one. 
It is needless to say that this practice is still more ob- 
jectionable than inoculation, and like that should be 
strictly prohibited wherever measures are being taken to 
eradicate the disease. 

STATE MEASURES TO STAMP OUT THE PLAGUE. 

1. For Country Districts with Inclosed Farms. 

(a) Prevent Importation from Infected Countries or Chan- 

nels. 
This subject has been already discussed above and 
need only be referred to here as indispensable to the 
stamping out of the disease. It is needless to attempt 
to crush within our own borders that which we are con- 
stantly introducing the seeds of from abroad. As well 
keep sowing our land with thistles while we are toiling 
day and night to eradicate them. 

(b) Proclaim Infected Localities. 

This is all essential for the protection of the public 
who could not otherwise avoid such places in the pur- 
chase and transit of stock. The insertion of such proc- 
lamation in the local papers and the posting of it m the 
post-offices or other places of public resort, will usually 
serve every purpose. The proclaimed district may be 
one or more towns, counties, or states, as the case may 
be, and thus the proclamation may come from Governor 
or President, in different cases. 



82 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

(c) Stop all Markets and Fairs in Infected Districts. 
Wherever cattle are brought together from different 

herds, any existing contagion is spread with their distri- 
bution. Where lung plague exists there is the strongest 
temptation, and the amplest opportunity for the owner 
to pick out the apparently healthy from the infected lot 
and send them to market. Many of them will not sicken 
for one or two months after the purchase, and by this 
time they will have infected many herds in all districts, 
far and near. To avoid this otherwise inevitable result, 
all collections of cattle in infected districts, whether for 
sale or exhibition, must be strictly prohibited. 

(d) Stop all Movement of Cattle in Infected Districts ex- 
cept under License after Examination of the Herd by an 
Expert. 

To the movement of cattle from herd to herd there is 
precisely the same objection as there is to markets and 
fairs. The existence of the disease in a herd is often 
unknown to the nearest neighbors, as its publication 
would interfere with the sale of stock, meat or milk. It is, 
therefore, an easy matter for an unscrupulous owner to 
sell the still apparently healthy animals, one by one, to 
unsuspecting parties and thus realize a salvage from his 
own infected herd by spreading the plague widely through- 
out the herds of his neighbors. If, however, cattle ar Q . 
moved only after the herd has been examined by a veteri- 
narian and an assurance has been given that no conta- 
gious disease has been present in it for the past six 
months, this danger is in great part done away with. It 
is requisite, however, to examine the whole herd from 
which the animals are to be moved, as otherwise infected 
animals in which symptoms have not yet developed will 
pass the closest scrutiny and be sent on to spread the 
pestilence. 

(e) Prohibit the Pasturage together of the Cattle of different 
Parties except under the Affidavit of each Owner that His 



Unf diced Pastures to be Disused. 83 

Stock has been clear of Contagious Disease for the Past Six 
Months Immediately Preceding. 

Here the danger is the same as in the case of fairs anc 
markets, and without the restriction named, apparently 
sound cattle from infected herds or premises are sent 
upon common pastures and when later the different herds 
are taken back by their respective owners they carry with 
them the seeds of sickness and death to others. 

(/) Prohibit Absolutely the Pasturage of Cattle on Un- 
fenced Grounds and Highways. 

In infected localities pasturage on roads and open lots 
is one of the most fertile sources of infection. Healthy 
herds turned out in this way come in contact with neigh- 
boring or passing infected ones, or with the places where 
they have immediately preceded them ; apparently sound 
cattle from infected herds carry the virus to healthy ones 
or breathe upon and soil the grass on which these after- 
ward browse, and thus the malady is spread ere any sus- 
picion is aroused. Many think to save their stock by 
having them herded or tethered, but the idea is a most 
fallacious one, as may be seen from the examples of the 
transmission of the contagium through pastures in Aus- 
tralia and elsewhere. The only course of safety is to 
exclude all cattle from open lots and highways and to 
utilize the products of such by mowing and soiling when 
this is necessary. 

(g) License Stud Bulls in Healthy Herds to Serve Cows 
from Sound Herds. 

The danger of contagion from sending cows from in 
fected herds to healthy bulls, and vice versa, necessitates 
this provision. Yet as the business usually demands 
dispatch, a license may be given for all safe bulls in the 
district and a running permit to the owners of sound 
herds of cows empowering them to take cows to the 
nearest of such bulls without loitering or pasturing them 
on the way. 



84 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

(h) Make it Incumbent on all Cognizant of the same to Re- 
port to a Designated Official all Cases of Disease in Cattle 
Supposed or Suspected to be Contagious. « 

Tliis is, of course, especially incumbent on the owners, 
but should be made to embrace all attendants, veterina- 
rians, visitors and all good citizens. The reasons for 
this are obvious, but they will be set forth more fully 
under the head of Indemnity. 

(i) Make it the Duty of Some Designated Local Authority 
to Receive this Report and to Order an Examination by a 
State Veterinary Inspector. 

Such local authority ought to be a Justice of the Peace, 
Police Magistrate or other Judge of the District, who can 
not only administer the law but promptly punish offend- 
ers. The judges in question will then make themselves 
acquainted with the law and will mete out more rigid 
justice to parties brought before them than if they had 
no such direct duty in the matter. They come to the 
subject already clothed with the dignity and authority of 
the law, and the moral influence is far better than if a 
State official, outside the judicial bench, had to apply the 
law and appear to prosecute the offenders. Besides, if a 
magistrate is not directly interested in the matter and 
specially acquainted with it, he will often decide a case 
in favor of the offender and to the serious detriment of 
the sanitary work. 

(j) Indemnity. If the Inspector Ascertains the Existence, 
of Lung Plague, he shall Estimate the Value of the Sick, or 
have it done by Disinterested Appraisers, and Report tlu. 
same to the Local Authority as tJie Basis of Indemnity. 

The principle of allowing indemnity for animals slaugh 
tered is fundamental to success, and according to the 
liberality of the award, is usually the success of the 
work of extermination. Withhold indemnity and owners 
withhold reports of sickness, hide away or slaughter the 
diseas d and throw the remainder of the infected herd 



Indemnity. 85 



on the market with most disastrous results. The main 
purpose of the indemnity is not, as many suppose, the 
re-imbursing of the owner for his loss, but rather the 
speedy discovery and extinction of every centre of con- 
tagion. The real value of the sick animal is usually of 
do account, and considering the danger of immediate and 
prospective infection of other animals by proximity and 
through the infected buildings, the dangers incident to 
its preservation far more than counterbalance the actual 
worth. But the prospect of a recovery, of having ar 
animal that is no longer susceptible to the disease, and 
the many drawbacks in the way of injury to business, 
will usually deter the owner from making his losses pub- 
lic. In all countries where the disease has been rooted 
out it has been found that no penalty for concealment 
is half so effectual as a liberal remuneration for animals 
sacrificed. Then, again, an indemnity which will encour- 
age owners to report is a measure of the wisest economy. 
While the existence of disease is concealed, the State is 
thrown back on a slow and laborious examination of herd 
by herd and beast by beast, conducted by veterinarians, 
and even then there are a thousand ways of secreting 
the sick in out-of-the-way places and subjecting only the 
apparently healthy to examination. Where, on the other 
hand, the owners have every encouragement to report sick- 
ness, the skilled veterinarian is only wanted to decide as 
to the nature of the sickness reported, and the State is 
saved at least nine-tenths of the expenses for professional 
inspections. 

For these, among other reasons, I have always advo- 
cated a liberal indemnity : and every day's experience 
with the plague shows more and more clearly the wisdom 
of this. The sick should, therefore, be appraised at their 
full value as if in health and the award should be no less 
than half of this estimate. I would even favor a two- 
thirds value as more efficient and economical, as it would 
8 



86 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

insure a more prompt report of every ease of illness 
The only objection to a full sound value, and it is an in- 
superable one, is, that it places a premium on sickness 
and would encourage the unscrupulous to convey infec- 
tion into an unmarketable herd for the purpose of dis- 
posing of them to the State. If this danger is guarded 
against it will be found that the highest award for sick 
animals slaughtered will prove most profitable to the 
commonwealth. It will assure what is almost unattain- 
able in any other way — a speedy and economical success. 

(Jc) Diseased Animals to be Slaughtered under the Eye of 
an Inspector, tJieir Hides Slashed and the Carcasses Deeply 
Buried in a Secluded Place. 

The importance of this need hardly be insisted on. So 
long as a sick beast is preserved it is but multiplying the 
poison, diffusing it through the air, and storing it up in 
the buildings. This poison it is impossible to circum- 
scribe, absolutely, except by its instant destruction. It 
may be wafted on the air, carried on straw, paper and 
other light bodies on which it has been dried, in the 
clothes of visitors, on the coats of domestic animals 
(horses, dogs, sheep, goats, cats), or of wild (rats, mice, 
skunks, etc.), and by numerous channels it will elude our 
vigilance and extend to neighboring herds. (On this 
subject see Mediate Contagion.) The only course of safety 
is to stop the production of the poison and bury what 
already exists where it can be no more exhumed. Before 
burial the hide should be extensively cut to prevent its 
removal for sale. 

(I) Disinfect the Premises, Utensils and Attendants. 

To kill the sick without subsequent disinfection of the 
premises is futile. Stamping out is by no means confined 
to the use of the pole-ax. Every place and object on 
which the virus may have been lodged must be subjected 
to an exhaustive disinfection if we would stay the prog- 
ress of the plague. 



Disinfection. 87 



For stables our printed instructions embrace what fol 
lows : 

"1. Remove all litter, manure, feed and fodder fron: 
the stables ; scrape the walls and floor ; wash them i. 
necessary ; remove all rotten wood. 

"2. Take Chloride of Lime one-half lb., Crude Car- 
bolic Acid 4 ozs., and water one gallon ; add freshly- 
burned Quicklime till thick enough to make a good white- 
wash ; whitewash with this the whole roof, walls, floors, 
posts, mangers, drains, and other fixtures in the cow sta- 
bles. 

"3. Wash so as to thoroughly cleanse all pails, buck- 
ets, stools, forks, shovels, brooms, and other movable ar- 
ticles used in the buildings, then wet them all over with 
a solution of Carbolic Acid one-half lb., water one 
gallon. 

"4. When the empty building has been cleansed and 
disinfected as above, close the doors and windows, place 
in the centre of the building a metallic dish holding one 
lb. Flowers of Sulphur ; set fire to this and let the cow 
shed stand closed and filled with the fumes for at least 
two hours. The above should suffice for a close stable 
capable of holding 12 cows. For larger or very opeD 
buildings more will be required. 

"5. The manure from a stable where sick cattle have 
been kept must be turned over and mixed with Quick- 
lime, 2 bushels to every load ; then hauled by horses to 
fields to which no cattle have access, and at once plough- 
ed under by horses. 

" 6. The pits, where the manure has been, must be cleans- 
ed and washed with the disinfectant fluid ordered for 
the building (Sec. 2). 

"7. The surviving herd should be shut up in a close 
building for half an hour once or twice a day, and made 
to breathe the fumes of burning sulphur. Close doors 
and windows, place a piece of paper on a clean shovel, 
lay a few pinches of Flowers of Sulphur upon it, and set 
it on fire, adding more sulphur, pinch by pinch, as long 
as the cattle can stand it without coughing. Continue for 
a month. 



88 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

"8. Give two drachms Powdered Copperas (Green Vit- 
riol) daily to each cow in meal or grains ; or, divide 1 lb. 
Copperas into 50 powders, and give one daily to each 
adult animal. 

" 9. Do not use for the surviving cattle any feed, foddei 
nor litter that has been in the same stable with the sick. 
They may safely be used for horses and sheep." 

In certain cases further measures are needed, as re- 
moval of the flooring and soil beneath, or even the cre- 
mation of the entire structure. Drains must also be 
cleansed. 

(to) Quarantine the Premises for Three Months after the 
last sick Animal has been Killed or has Recovered. 

Free and continuous exposure to air is one of the best 
disinfectants, and after the disinfection the exposure of 
the empty premises with the doors and windows open 
for three months will usually complete the purification. 

(n) Hay, Fodder and Peed in Infected Buildings to be De- 
stroyed or Fed to Horses, Sheep or Pigs. 

It is needless to insist upon this as such fodder has 
been subjected to the fever-laden breath of the sick and 
should only be used for animals that are insusceptible to 
the contagion. 

(o) Manure from Infected Herds to be thoroughly Disin- 
fected with Chloride of Lime, or Hauled out by Horses to 
Fields adjoining no Cattle Pastures, and then Ploughed under. 

Though we cannot say that the defecations as passed 
are infecting, yet, as they lie in and around infected sta- 
bles, they are liable to take up and convey the infection, 
and we have repeatedly traced outbreaks to this source. 

Like fodder, however, it is harmless to horses, and 
provided these do not stand as mates with cattle they 
may be safely used in disposing of it. In the vicinity ol 
cities it can be safely applied on market gardens. 

(p) Pastures where Sick Animals have been to be Secluded 
for Three Months after their Removal. 



Closure of Pastures : 'Registration of Herds. 89 



We have already seen the danger of infected pastures 
and notably in the case of Australia, and as these cannot 
be purified artificially we must allow time for the action 
of nature's great natural disinfectants. The time neces- 
sary will vary somewhat in different cases, thus in a mild 
climate with frequent alternations of rain and sunshine 
it may be considerably less than in the dry Australian 
climate, or in the winter season of our northern States 
when everything is for months bound up in frost. Three 
months may be fairly accepted as a good average. 

(q) Make a Register of each Infected Herd with a Per- 
sonal Description of every Animal. 

By adopting this precaution a perfect control may be 
kept up by non-professional inspectors, and the frequent 
visits of the more expensive veterinarian largely dis- 
pensed with. The check too is all but perfect, as, if an 
animal disappears it must be accounted for and no beast 
can be replaced by another without detection. 

For this purpose a personal description is usually a 
better safeguard than any mark or brand which may be 
counterfeited. 



NEED FOR SPECIAL MEASURES IN CITIES. 

The eradication of the Lung Plague from fenced coun- 
try districts is a very simple affair, to be easily and 
speedily accomplished at but little cost, but when we 
come to the cities we find a totally different state of 
things, requiring special restrictive measures. To illus- 
trate this I must enter somewhat into the nature of the 
city dairy interest. 

Supply of Fresh Cows. 

Under ordinary circumstances the fresh cows are sup- 
plied from country districts and most of them come in 
sound. When, however, disease exists in the adjacent 
country the city is the readiest market for animals frore 
8* 



90 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

an infected herd, and the unfortunate farmer too often 
unloads his suspicious beasts on the still more unfortu« 
nate city milkman. Such cows pass through the ordinary 
channels, and in their course infect cars, ferry-boats and 
cattle-yards so that ere they reach their destination they 
have often done most material damage. Thus, when we 
began our work in New York we traced many outbreaks 
to cows from infected districts in New Jersey, and others 
to the infected sheep-house at 60th street, where many 
fresh cows were kept for sale. This was promptly stop- 
ped ; but we had then scarcely begun to meet the difficul- 
ties. 

The fresh cows are mostly sent to the city consigned 
directly to dealers, or to speculators who in their turn 
employ cow-dealers to dispose of them at a commission. 
On their arrival by boat or rail some are sold directly to 
the milkmen, and the others are mostly sent to dealers 
stables to be disposed of later. A number of the New 
York dealers keep their cows in the Union Stock yards 
at 60th street, and until the present law was enforced 
they kept them in the sheep-house. 

We must go a step further to show the dangers of this. 
A great majority of the city milkmen are poor, keeping 
from one to a dozen cows, and their losses are so heavy 
that they can rarely get money enough to pay for their 
cows when bought. The cows are accordingly left with 
them on trial, and the payments made in installments. If 
a cow fails to milk as represented she is rejected and the 
dealer replaces her by another, taking the first to another 
customer, or in the absence of a customer back to his 
own stables, or as was the case formerly in New York 
back to the Union Stock Yards. Such cows transferred 
from city stable to stable in many cases carried conta- 
gion with them, and when returned to the dealer's stable 
or stock-yard they infected these places and indirectly 
all cows that afterward passed through these. Thus i\ 



City Cow-Trade. 91 



was that every dealer's stable became sooner or later a 
pest-house and a centre from which the disease was con- 
stantly spread in all directions. The same was the case 
with the Union Stock Yards where at first we found sick 
animals standing that had been brought in from city 
stables. 

A second dangerous practice of dealers was the ped- 
dling of cows which were driven from herd to herd, and 
too often at night or during the heat of midday, were 
stabled with herds where they happened to be overtaken. 
In this way they usually took in the disease genus if they 
were not already affected, or if they had already taken 
them in they diffused them wherever they went. 

Then, again, the cows that were given out on trial were 
too often those that were in the earlier stages of the dis- 
ease, or but partially recovered from it, that were doing 
badly in consequence, and as no one cared to keep them 
they made a hasty progress through a number of herds, 
infecting them all in turn. 

Pasturage on Commons. — Another prolific source of the 
disease in cities, is found in the abundance of open 
grounds intended for building and held by speculators 
in prospect of sale. On such unfenced grounds the 
poorer owner of two or three cows and Bven the holder 
of a score or more, turn out their cattle daily to pasture, 
and as herd mingles with herd the sick infect the healthy, 
and soon a whole neighborhood is contaminated by one 
sick beast. There is usually an understanding that sick 
cows are to be kept in, but this is often neglected, and 
even where adopted it but hides the danger for the 
slightly affected and those that are recovering, but retain 
in the chest an encysted mass of infecting material, are 
turned out and transmit the disease freely. Some seek 
to protect their cows by herding them on such places, 
and others by staking them, but all such measures must 
be futile so long as they are allowed to graze where sick 
cattle have been before them. 



92 The Lang Plague of Cattle. 

It is from this cause, mainly, that the disease has been 
always more prevalent at the end of the summer than in 
spring, and at the present time we still find more disease 
in districts such as Brooklyn and its outskirts, where, 
owing to local obstructions, we have been unable to en- 
force a sound pasturage law, than in New York and else- 
where, where this law has been respected. In these city 
commons we have the counterpart, on a small scale, of 
the immense common pastures of the Russian steppes, 
and the Australian and South African ranges, and it is 
mainly to this characteristic and to the special features 
of the cow trade in the cities that the lung plague has 
been maintained in America for the past 36 years. 

Facilities for Secret Sale and Slaughter. — The preserva- 
tion of the plague in cities is further favored by the ease 
with which the sick may be thrown on the meat market. 
In country districts the prejudice is so strong that it is 
usually impossible to dispose of even a sound animal 
from an infected herd to any district butcher. But in 
the cities the source of the beef is not so easily ascer- 
tained and butchers are not slow to kill anything that 
stands upon four legs. Hence the owner will often hide 
the existence of the disease to save his milk business and 
dispose of the sick for beef. 

Were the city possessed of but one abattoir, this 
might be easily controlled ; but when slaughter houses 
are scattered every where and cattle are killed at all 
times of the day and night, this is difficult or impracti- 
ble and at best very expensive. 

I cannot do better than quote the measures we have 
adopted in New York to meet these conditions. 

1. Control or Imports. 

Source. — Cows and store cattle are admitted only as 
they come by the Hudson River R. R. and Harlem R. R. 
from points north of Putnam County ; by the New Haven 



Source: Detention and Distribution of Cows. 93 

R. R. from Connecticut ; by the Erie R. R. from points 
west of Rockland county and excluding stations between 
Goslien and the western line of Orange County, such cat- 
tle to be transferred from the Oak Cliff stock-yards to 
the Union stock-yards, N. Y., by a special boat — the Can 
isteo — retained for this purpose. 

Store cattle from New Jersey and Long Island are ab- 
solutely excluded, excepting in the case of private cows 
that have been kept apart from all other cattle, have been 
healthy for at least six months and are to be kept in a 
private stable or pasture in New York. Such are ad- 
mitted on permit given after examination by an inspector. 

Point of Arrival and Detention. — All fresh milch cows 
and other store cattle must come to the Union Stock- 
Yards and enter the yards set apart for them where they 
will be inspected and detained until ready to go to their 
final destination. 

"With characteristic energy, the Union Stock- Yard 
Company have constructed a number of new yards for 
this purpose on the south side of 59th street and have 
subjected the sheep-house to a thorough disinfection so 
that cows, etc., can be safely kept in the new yards and 
calves in the sheep-house. Thus our most prolific source 
of disease has been abolished. 

Distribution of Coios to City Dairies. — No cow is al- 
lowed to leave the stock-yard to go to any dealer's sta- 
ble in New York and be thence transferred to a milk- 
man's stable. If she enters a dealer's stable she must 
remain there until ready for slaughter and must go 
straight to the abattoir. Cows sold to milkmen must go 
from the yards on permit, direct to the milkman's stable. 
Once a cow has entered a milkman's stable she cannot 
be transferred to another milkman, to a dealer's stable 
nor to the Union Stock- Yards. She must be kept on from 
year to year or fattened and killed for beef. 

Here, at one blow, we do away with the infecting deal- 



94 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

er's stable and the pestiferous system of peddling cows 
from herd to herd and of placing infected cows for trial 
in a number of herds successively. 

In such a city as New York it was impracticable to 
stop the cow market ; but by this arrangement we can 
control it so as to reduce its evils to the minimum. The 
system as above sketched has only been perfected for a 
short time, but already it has given the most encourag- 
ing results having almost completely extinguished the 
plague in that city. The milkmen heartily approve it, 
as they now receive their cattle with a guarantee of 
health, and by buying at the yards they have a better 
choice and can make better terms than under the old 
system of buying from the dealer's stable and peddler's 
drove. Then, too, they find that the introduction of a 
fresh cow is not the signal for a new appearance of dis- 
ease, as was so commonly the case in times past. It 
would be difficult, to-day, to impose upon a New York 
milkman a cow that comes without General Patrick's 
permit and the inspector's marks. Most dealers who 
formerly kept their cows at the Union Stock- Yards like 
the system, for a sale is now a bona fide sale .and brings 
the money in place of promises to be redeemed little by 
little at uncertain intervals. Some grumble, but only 
because they can no longer pursue their calling at the 
expense of a constant propagation of disease. 

Disuse of Quarantine Notices. — In a locality controlled 
as New York city now is, the posting of quarantine no- 
tices on buildings is more injurious than beneficial. No 
cows can enter the premises except with a permit on 
which the destination is stated and none can leave except 
for immediate slaughter. The object of the notice is 
fully attained by these measures, and the notice on the 
building without accomplishing any good, imperils the 
sale of milk from the herd, and, in fear of this, the 
owner is liable to hide the existence of disease. For 



Police Control: Carcasses. l J5 



the same reason that I advocate a liberal indemnity, I 
advocate the disuse of quarantine notices in such cir- 
cumstances. Here, as everywhere, the best success de- 
pends on the hearty co-operation of the owners of cattle. 

Control by the Police. — An order of the Commission of 
Police was obtained calling upon the force to apprehend 
all parties moving cows or other store cattle without a 
permit signed by General Patrick, and to impound all 
cows or other cattle pasturing on streets or unfenced 
places. To their credit, be it said, they have carried out 
this satisfactorily and have contributed in no small de- 
gree to the success of our work. Reference has already 
been made to the value of magistrates as local authori- 
ties, and I would here suggest the vital importance of 
providing in any future law, that the police and village 
constabulary assist in carrying out its provisions. 

Denying Permits, etc. — Any dealer who violates the 
rules is punished by the refusal of permits for the move- 
ment of cattle until he gives bonds to abide by the law 
in the future, and in ease he continues to violate, he is 
prosecuted by the District Attorney. 

Movement of Calves and Store Cattle. — These are de- 
tained in the yards until sold and then sent on permit 
to their destination. 

Examination of all Dead Cattle at the Offal Dock. — All 
animals that die in the city of New York are sent to the 
offal dock and thence to the rendering works at Barren 
Island, so that by sending an inspector daily to this dock 
to open all dead cattle, we can trace the existence of the 
disease to any part of the city and take the necessary 
steps for crushing it out. In this way one man can ac- 
complish more than five would if engaged in the exam- 
ination of herds, beast by beast. 

Systematic Inspection of Herds.— Notwithstanding the 
difficulties attendant on a personal inspection of the an- 
imals, this is vigorously prosecuted and now the greater 
part of the city has been overhauled. 



96 The Lung Plague of Cattle. 

Other Measures. — Beside the above, we apply in the 
cities all the rules above cited for the country concern* 
ing pasturage, bull-licenses, reporting sickness, inspec- 
tion, condemnation, appraisement, slaughter, indemnity, 
disinfection, quarantine, disposal of fodder litter, ma- 
nure, etc., and the registration of herds. 

I need only add that since its complete adoption our 
progress has been most gratifying and we can now almost 
claim a perfect immunity for New York city. 

But our safety as a State depends on the safety of our 
neighbors, and we need to secure such action from the 
separate infected States as shall banish the plague from 
the Continent. With New York as a great centre of cat- 
tle trade from the South as well as from the West we 
must inevitably become infected anew unless we keep up 
an expensive and vexatious system of quarantine against 
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia 
and District of Columbia. The disease is slowly spread- 
ing south and west from Alexandria. I have a list of 20 
herds infected in one line south of that city within the 
past three years. The plague threatens to reach our 
southern and western ranges whence it will be as impos- 
sible to eradicate it as from the Russian steppes, Aus- 
tralia and South Africa, and from which continuous ac- 
cessions of infection will be thrown upon our Middle and 
Eastern States, and shall we hesitate to call upon the 
National Government to interfere ? This is a question of 
incomparably more moment to the western and middle 
States than to Delaware, Maryland or Virginia. To throw 
the burden of the extinction of this disease on these 
States is as impolitic as it is unjust. If ever there was a 
question which in its future bearing affected the United 
States as a whole it is this. 

It would be highly appropriate that the Agriculturists 
of the different States, Western and Southern, as well as 
1 astern, should petition Congress to take this matter up 



^4 Prompt National Action Demanded. 97 

and adopt such measures as would forever rid our coun- 
try of this most insidious of all animal plagues. At all 
hazards the work ought to be done and that speedily. If 
State rights stand in the way, let the money at least be 
supplied, as it rightfully ought, from the National ex- 
chequer, and applied by the different States through 
their own officials under the supervision of some re- 
sponsible department — say the Agricultural Bureau, a 
Live Stock Disease Commission, the National Board 
of Health, or even the Treasury Department. It is folly 
and worse to quarrel about the means until the plague 
shall have passed beyond control. Action is wanted, 
of a prompt and decisive nature, by the General Gov- 
ernment or with its assistance, and those who are most 
deeply interested in the subject should press this upon 
the Government until such action shall have been se- 
cured. 
9 




Fig. 1.— Portion op diseased lung from an advanced case of Lung Plague. 
The lung tissue has been softened and removed, leaving the exudate in the interlobular 
tissue circumscribing empty cavities — like a honey-comb. From photograph, by Rockwood, 
Union Square, New York. 




Fig 2 —Portion of diseased lung from an advanced case of Lung Plague. 
The lung'tissne has disappeared, leaving; the air-tubes and surrounding vessels and connec- 
tive tissue filled with organized exudate, and having a branching arrangement. From, 
photograph by Rockwood. 



THE FARMER'S VETERINARY ADVISER. 



OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 

The author has accomplished his task with remarkable perspicuity 
and ability. In this " Adviser " we find everything necessary to be 
known by the amateur of the more common, and even some of the 
rarer, forms of disease, as well as the accidents to which quadrupeds 
and poultry are liable — the whole being brought up to the most ad- 
vanced standard of veterinary science. We know of no work on the 
subject in any language which, in the same space, embraces so much. 
While the technicalities of science are interpreted in words which 
must be intelligible to the meanest understanding, and the whole 
book is written in a terse attractive style, nothing is omitted which 
pertains to the most recent investigations and discoveries. We cer- 
tainly have no book like this in Britain; and we are of opinion that, 
though written for America, it shoulcLprove as useful on this side of 
the Atlantic. — The Veterinary Journal, London, fflig., August, 1876. 

The diseases of all our domesticated animals, and the more important 
ones of poultry, are described, and most approved treatment given. I 
have no hesitation in saying that this is the most useful and therefore 
the best work on the diseases of animals in the English language. It 
is wonderful how much information has been compressed within the 
limits of a small volume. Before the publication of this work a farmer 
was obliged to purchase a small library to have at command advice 
on different diseases to which his animals are liable, and even then it 
could not always be relied on. The treatment is particularly com- 
plete. — Dr. Salmon in Country Gentleman. 

We can, after a careful perusal of the work, confidently add, that 
it deserves to be placed at the head of all that has hitherto appeared 
in this line. Its 400 pages are filled with valuable, practf 3al informa- 
tion, concisely written and in plain popular language. — Prairie 
Farmer, Chicago, July 29, 1876. 

In a systematic way, Prof. Law classifies the various kinds of dis- 
ease, and speaks of each concisely, as it appears in animals of different 
kinds, — its symptoms, treatment and prevention. An appendix ia 
devoted to the action of medicines, the graduation of doses, and a 
table of remedies, with the quantities of each proper to be adminis- 
tered. Theories or pathological discussions, however interesting, are 
passed by, in order to give simply and exclusively just what the 
farmer wants to know — and that often in a great hurry — about the 
treatment of a particular complaint. —Country Gentleman. 



(2) 

A much needed book. Should be carefully studied and mastered 
by farmers. — A 7 ! Y. Times. 

From the pen of such an author is a sufficient inducement for every 
one to buy and carefully read it. Will give to the common reader 
as well as to the scientific man much valuable information. — Da 
Liatjtard, President Veterinary College, New York. 

It will prove of immense benefit to the farmers and stock owners 
generally on this continent, and at the same time it will be of great 
service as a book of reference to the veterinary practitioner. — Prof. 
Smith, President Veterinary College, Toronto. 

It is plain, practical and comprehensive, and will be found what 
its name implies, a valuable and reliable adviser in the many cases of 
stock ailments that farmers and stock men have so often to deal with. 
-^-Practical Farmer. 

A book that no farmer can afford to be without. — Rural New 
Yorker. 

This is a very useful work. It treats of the diseases to which 
farm animals are subject in a very plain, practical and thorough 
manner. — American Agriculturist. 

Though many books of veterinary science have appeared in this 
country, prior to the one whose title we put in our head line, they 
have all been so defective in comprehensiveness, and frequently so 
untrustworthy in their teaching, as to render it most desirable that 
some one fully competent for the task should undertake to furnish a 
satisfactory work on the diseases of domesticated animals in the 
United States. The republication of British authors has not supplied 
the deficiency, as a different manner of feeding and a different 
climate modify diseases, and indeed produce new ones which are 
entirely unknown in the British Isles. Prof. Law, whose name has 
for a long time been agreeably familiar to readers of The Tribune, 
will be generally acknowledged as the fittest possible person for 
such service, and we gladly commend the result of his labors to all 
keepers of stock. * * * * Though we have dwelt chiefly on that 
chapter of the "Veterinary Adviser" which treats of contagious 
diseases, on account of the great public interest that attaches to 
many of them, the succeeding chapters are not less interesting to 
keepers of live stock, as due attention is paid to all the minor mala- 
dies to which horses, cattle, sheep, and swine are subjected. The 
author's extensive knowledge of veterinary literature and his varied 
practical experience have been happily utilized by describing diseases 
concisely and in language intelligible to all. — New York Tribune. 

Plain and practical it will direct the common farmer how to re- 
lieve distressed animals whenever relief is practicable. Prof. Law 
in his book sets forth in the plainest language the knowledge he has 
gleaned both of the nature of the diseases which assail domestic 
animals, and the proper treatment of them. And what is of quite as 
much importance, he discusses the sanitary measures by which good 
health and vigor may be preserved. — The Husbandman. 

This is a handsome duodecimo volume of over four hundred pages, 
aid we are much pleased with it in the fact that the author has 
labored to bring it within the comprehension of that class who need 
it Most works of this class are lumbered up with so much learning 



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in technical language, that they fail of ever meeting the wants of 
laymen. Prof. Law has wisely avoided this fatal error, and has 
made his book what he calls it, a " Veterinary Adviser for Farmers." 
— Wallace's Monthly. 

From a careful examination of the work it impresses us as one of 
immense value to the live stock interest of the nation, and a copy 
should be in the hands of every farmer. It is comprehensive, in- 
cluding the diseases of horses, cattle, sheep, swine and poultry. The 
work is eminently practical. Some veterinary works are so tech- 
nical as to be of little use to the plain farmer, but this is made so 
plain as to be readily comprehended by any man of ordinary intel- 
lect. A most valuable feature of the work before us is an appendix 
which gives the doses of the different medicines recommended for 
the different species of domesticated animals. The press uniformly 
pronounce it the best work on the subject that has yet appeared. 
No farmer's library is complete without it. — Southern Live Stock 
Journal. 

I am delighted with it. It cannot fail to be exceedingly useful tc 
the young veterinary practitioner as well as to the farmer. — Wil- 
liamson Brydkn, Esq., V.S., Boston, Mass. 

Deserves to attain to a healthy old age. — Prof. Murray, 
M.R.C.V.S., Detroit, late of Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, 
England. 

" The work is especially designed to supply the need of the busy 
American farmer who can rarely avail of a scientific veterinarian " 
says the preface, and a careful examination would lead us to indorse 
this claim. The maladies are well described, their salient features 
are given in detail, and as far as may be, their causes, thus affording 
a guide to a rational treatment. The book is copiously illustrated 
and has been prepared at considerable expense. We trust it will 
meet with a successful sale, for we think it the most valuable book 
on the subject that has yet appeared. — Scientific Farmer. 

We think, w r hen the demand for veterinary literature is supplied 
by works which are mere advertisements of secret medicines, it was 
high time that some competent and honorable veterinary surgeon 
should undertake the task of writing a work on the various diseases 
to which the domesticated animals are subject in this country. We 
think we can safely say that Prof. Law has accomplished this task- 
in a most satisfactory manner, as the various diseases are described 
in as brief and plain a manner as is compatible with giving all the 
information that is required on the subject. We most heartily com 
mend this work to the farmers of Michigan who need in their daily 
practice just such a work. — Michigan Farmer. 

A very valuable book. It is full of excellent information pertain- 
ing to veterinary matter which every farmer should possess. It is 
liberally illustrated, and although the text is very clear, the cuts 
make it yet more easily understood by all who read it. — Western 
Rural. 

One of the most valuable books ever issued from the American 
press, for the general farmer, is that recently published by Prof. 
Law, of Cornell University, entitled "The Farmer's Veterinary 
Adviser." It is designed especially to supply the wants of Buch as 



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are so situated that they cannot avail themselves of the services of a 
scientific veterinarian, and as such it is plainly written, concise and 
comprehensive. — National Live Stock Journal. 

The country is flooded with miserable, trashy books — literary 
garbage, so to speak, of one sort or another. Now and then a re- 
ally excellent production appears — the gift, perhaps, of a brain that 
is nearly if not altogether inspired — and yet occasionally such, even 
in our day, meets at first but a poor reception. * * * But we start- 
ed out to call attention to a very admirable book — a book that fills a 
vacancy and supplies a long-felt want. The "Veterinary Adviser" 
is just simply a very straightforward and well written treatise, suit- 
ed in every way to the wants of the farmers for whom it is espe- 
cially intended ; and we do not hesitate to say that it should occupy 
an honored place in the iibrar) of every agriculturist who has any 
money invested in live stock. It tells all about the different diseases 
of our domestic animals — it discusses the best methods of treating 
these diseases, giving cause and cure, together with much sensible 
comment in relation to disinfectants, preventives, etc. No agricult- 
urist with the education necessary to the comprehension of plain 
English could possibly be the owner of the " Farmer's Veterinary 
Adviser " without deriving from it information to the value of many 
times its cost; and in the case of those owning blooded stock it 
should be regarded as a part of the outfit impossible to be dispensed 
with. — Farmer's Home Journal. 

It treats of a subject upon which we have a professional judgment, 
and a subject of importance to the public, viz : the diseases of all 
our domestic animals — not a few of which are communicable to 
man. The profound ignorance which prevails almost universally on 
this subject has led to more pecuniary loss, more absurd and oppress- 
ive legislation, more caprice and injustice in the administration of the 
law, than any one, not aware of the facts, would probably be willing 
to believe. Prof. Law has written with complete originality and 
marked ability. In the volume before us, though not a large book, 
will be found more information, and in a form more available to the 
non-professional man, than can be had from any other book on the 
science in ours or in any language. While we desire to recommend 
this work to every stock man and every farmer as something he 
cannot afford to do without, we desire at the same time to urge the 
great public importance of this subject. It has often been to us a 
matter of surprise that those who have devoted special attention to 
the subject of legal medicine, have so completely ignored the great 
light that would be thrown upon their labors by the study of this 
branch of science. * * In all sincerity we regard the "Farmer's 
Veterinary Adviser " as the best and most useful work extant on the 
subject of veterinary science. If whosoever is the owner of one 
valuable animal will be advised by us he will send and get it with- 
out delay. — Southern P 1 anter and Farmer. 

This work gives in a condensed form the plainest account of the 
the diseases of our domestic animals with treatment rational and of 
easy application. Here we find an intelligible account of all the 
modern contagious diseasps, some of which, happily, have not yet 
"eached our shores. Dr. Law unites a thorough veterinary educa- 



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tion in Europe and extensive practice in thitr country. These rare 
opportunities he has improved to give us a work well fitted for the 
American farmer, and the existence of such a book only needs to be 
known that it may be appreciated and adopted. All arranged so as 
to be easily found and with such plain descriptions as can be under- 
stood by the unprofessional reader. — Massachusetts Ploughman. 

Will be found very valuable and effective. — Columbia Co. (N. Y.) 
2i?nes. 

Recipes and prescriptions by the thousand have been published for 
the cure of disease, and preparations and combinations of drugs have 
been advertised and sold without limit by people who are as igno- 
rant of the laws of health as they are unfamiliar with the anatomy 
of the patients they propose to cure. The " Farmer's Veterinary 
Adviser" is a different book. We are not personally acquainted 
with the author, but of this we are sure, that any one of ordinary 
ability can see at a glance that this book is an original production 
and from beginning to end the author's own work, and is written 
by one who understands his profession and knows just what he is 
talking about. Unlike many books of its class, this not only gives 
directions for the treatment of animals when they are sick, but bet- 
ter still, indicates the treatment necessary to prevent animals from 
becoming sick. It is a work valuable not only for reference in times 
of trouble, but more than that, it is a guide to the every-day man- 
agement of domestic animals with regard to their health and useful- 
ness. The " Veterinary Adviser " is designed to teach the farmer 
how to keep his animals healthy, how to know their diseases when 
they appear and how to treat them. We have seen no book on the 
diseases of animals which we can recommend with so much confi- 
dence as this of Prof. Law. It contains over 400 pages, treats upon 
almost every disease that animal flesh is heir to, and will pay for it- 
self a dozen times over in the hands of every intelligent man who 
owns horses, cattle, sheep or swine. — New England Farmer. 

He has undertaken to combine, in what may be termed a " Popu- 
lar Medical Adviser," scientific and familiar language. And in this 
he has succeeded ; that is so far as success is ever attained in such 
an undertaking. The general appearance of the volume is excellent, 
and we like its arrangement. The chapters on contagious and 
epizootic diseases and on parasites are concise, and may be sufficient- 
ly well understood by an intelligent reader, offering him a large 
amount of information on very important subjects. The remaining 
chapters, which are well classified for reference, may be advanta- 
geously consulted by the veterinary student and practitioner as weli 
as by others, who may be sure of their diagnosis. With regard to 
the preparation of the foot of the horse in shoeing, we support the 
opinion of Prof. Law in every particular, and there can be no subject 
of greater interest to the farmer or medical man, dependent as they 
both are upon the services of this animal. — Boston Medical and Sur- 
gical Journal. 

A compact and thoroughly practical guide to the prevention and 
treatment of disease in domestic animals. In a terse manner it 
describes every disease, sets forth their symptoms and prescribes the 
proper treatment to follow; The work is invaluable to every farmer 



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in the land and none should fail to provide themselves with a copy, 
The Professor through this work becomes a public benefactor. — Thi 
Spirit of the Times. 

In the briefest possible way every disease is described, its symp- 
toms set forth and the treatment prescribed. The man who resorts 
to the book does not have to wade through a sea of discussions to 
find what is the matter with his horse, ox, or sheep and to discover 
the mode of cure. A book that will enable the stock owner to dis- 
pense with the services of perilous quacks. The qualified veterinary 
surgeons will thank the Professor for his work since death to the 
quacks means the promotion of their business interests. — The Turf, 
Fieli and Farm. 

This is a splendid work, chock-full of valuable information, and 
replete with practical tests, the author being standard authority on 
these subjects throughout the United States. It tells all about each 
and every disease to which our domestic animals are subject, gives 
hints about the breeding management and care of animals, in a word 
it is just the thing for the farmer or stock breeder to have on hand 
for reference. — Chatauqua Farmer. 

This is a dangerous book so far as the interests of the professional 
are concerned, as it is so plain and professionally correct, that any 
common sense man may doctor his own animal. No farmer or 
horseman can afford to be without a copy. — Dr. Horne in Country 
Gentleman. 

Has been pronounced by the highest authority to be the best 
book on the diseases of animals published. It is absolutely a ne- 
cessity to farmers, treating the various diseases to which domesticated 
animals are subject in an able and practical manner. — The Spirit of 
the Times. 

A much needed book. It is an excellent work tersely but plainly 
written, and treats upon almost every ailment of domestic animals 
in a manner that can be understood by any farmer of ordinary edu- 
cation. Prof. Law is one of the most thorough of veterinary 
scientists of the day, and we are glad that he so well qualified 
should have undertaken the task of instructing farmers upon some 
points that it is necessary for them to know. Many a valuable 
animal is sacrificed and many a slight and arrestable illness becomes 
dangerous and chronic because in its first stages the farmer does not 
know how to treat it, and the aid of a qualified veterinarian is not 
at once attainable. For these reasons no farmer's stock in trade is 
complete without a work on veterinary surgery and we know of no 
work that fills the bill so well as this one of Prof. Law. — Canada 
Farmer. 

Much as we despise the general run of works which profess to 
make every man his own cattle doctor, good manuals on the veteri- 
nary treatment of animals are much needed to guide the stock owner. 
The dissemination of sound elementary knowledge in the diagnosis 
and treatment of disease would be a great benefit. The farmer at 
least should be more intelligent than the cow-leech, and should know 
enough to dispense with his services. A well trained intellect and 
logical mind may be intrusted with some knowledge of diseases oi 
men and animals without necessarily converting him 'nto an igno* 



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rant quack. We are tempted to make these remarks after perusing 
a recent American work by Professor Law, of Cornell University. 
No work in the English language which we have seen comes so 
nearly up to our ideal of what a veterinary manual for stock owners 
should be as this little volume. Ostensibly written for American 
farmers, this work will be found useful to all who have the care of 
live stock in the Old as well as the New World. The need for it is 
of course more in America than in England where the aid of skilled 
veterinary surgeons is more readily obtained than on the other side 
of the Atlantic, where they are few and far between. The work 
thoroughly attains the object for which it was written. The lan- 
guage used is of the simplest kind. All technical terms are explain- 
ed. There is none of the jargon of the pedant, too common in mod- 
ern veterinary works. The diseases of animals are classified, the 
symptoms, treatment, prevention and cure given in intelligible En 
glish. Carefully prepared illustrations accompany the text where 
necessary, and it contains an admirably prepared appendix of the ac- 
tion and doses of medicines recommended, and withal an ample in- 
dex. It combines a veterinary dictionary and manual and its in- 
structions are clear and concise. All the common diseases incident 
to animals in this country will be found described in its pages, for 
Professor Law, though an American by adoption, had extended ex- 
perience when residing in his native country as Professor of Veteri- 
nary Science in the '".ate Albert Veterinary College, Bayswater, and 
the New Veterinan College, Edinburgh, where he was a colleague 
of Professor John G-amgee's. Such a work as " The Farmers Vete- 
rinary Adviser " deserves an extended circulation in this kingdom, 
and we should be glad to see an English edition of the work brought 
out under the auspice- of some one of our enterprising publishers on 
this side of the Atlantic. — The Country, London, Eny. 



